Opposites Attract
by JeramIgneal
Summary: In a kingdom that was full of life, lived a queen, a snowman, a husband, and a wife. Prosperity and freedom ruled all, a kingdom never likely to fall. But, inbound from far off lands, came a demon, a brother, a wizard, a man. With powers that he hated wield, he follows evil orders without yield. But, when he breaks out of his dusty hell, what happens when stumbles into Arendelle?
1. Prologue

"Come on, your highness." the guard said mockingly as he yanked the chain around my wrists. He opened a door, shoving me inside, cursing about how he needs a new job at the palace. The room is spacious and cold, opposite of ideal conditions for me. The darkness envelops him and I as we enter. The door slams behind us, and a bridge goes up as well. The guard secures my bonds to the chain attached to the solid stone floor. "Let's see you try and escape from this prison, Jeram." he called, snickering as he left.

Silently, I smiled. As I exhale, tongues of fire twist out of my mouth and nostrils, illuminating the room. Easy. I thought. This will hold up just as much as the others did. Looking around, I see a drop-off from all sides, going to depths I don't even know. Each hand, bound by thick iron chains, is separately bolted to the ground so my arms are extended to each side. I see the weak spot in this prison: the front door. Though not the subtle approach, it's still as effective. Probably at least a foot thick of wood, reinforced with iron along the sides. Oh well. Worth a shot. There hasn't been a door yet I haven't been able to blast through.

Through sheer force of will, my tattooed right arm ignites, followed by my bare left. The chains, red hot, fall apart, melting at the ground by my feet. Now for the interesting part, I think to myself. I back up, as far as I can without falling, and concentrate as hard as I can. Instantly, my feet explode with heat, propelling me headfirst into the giant prison door. Quickly, I ignite my hands and thrust them in front of me, diving horizontally into a solid object. Not my finest move, but it worked all the same. The guards looked in astonishment as they see a two-ton door shatter into flaming splinters, a comet of a human being shooting through. I kept going for a few hundred more yards before the snow broke my fall. I run back to the guards, looking for the one thing that I can't leave without: my staff. I find the guard who was harassing me earlier, huddled up in the fetal position with my weapon in his trembling grasp. I looked at him, held out my hand, gesturing for him to hand it over. Looking down, he surrenders it. I then proceed to knock him out with it. Nice try, brother. I think as I run off into the cold lands of Arendelle.

***This is just a prologue, don't think of it as the first chapter. I just wanted to see how people reacted to the main character before committing much time to it. I'm thinking about writing a chapter every week. Leave a comment to tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter 1: The Wedding

**This is chapter one, the first chapter was just a prologue, now we're getting into longer stuff. Enjoy and leave comment on it telling me what you think :)**

It was a beautiful wedding.

It must have been the proudest, most misty-eyed day of Elsa's life. The kingdom, though in the depths of winter, was filled with warmth and happiness, celebrating Princess Anna's marriage to Kristoff. The remainder of their damaged family, their friends, and subjects all gathered for the ceremony in the main hall, where Elsa stood at the altar, about to carry out her responsibility to marry them.

As the music started, Anna, clothed in a white, snowflake-patterned wedding gown, started to walk down the aisle. As soon as Kristoff saw her, Elsa noticed him tensing up nervously. She whispered to him, "Don't worry, this isn't the end, just the beginning."

That seemed to put him at ease a little. The rest of the ceremony was pretty routine, they both said their vows without flaw, and after the "I-do's" they walked down the aisle as a happy, unified couple.

The ceremony was good, but the reception was extravagant. Elsa had made dozens of ice sculptures, all lined throughout the courtyard, which was warm despite the bitter cold, due Elsa's control over her new power. As the dancing started, Anna called,

"Elsa! Come on and join us!" Elsa glanced around for a partner, not expecting to find one. Although she had come back and is a much beloved queen, her subjects give her a pretty wide berth due to her icy powers.

"I think I'll just stay here, if it's all the same to you," Elsa said once Anna danced close by.

"Suit yourself," she replied, smiling and rejoining her groom. Elsa, putting on a smile, stayed for a few more minutes to talk with old friends before turning away and vanishing into the castle.

As the song ended, a cold wind raced through the courtyard, making everyone huddle in their overgarments. "Strange," said Kristoff. "It shouldn't be cold in here unless Elsa wants it to be."

"Maybe she just doesn't want the sculptures to melt," suggested Anna.

"That's probably it." replied Kristoff, sweeping Anna back onto the dance floor. The music resumed and everyone danced a bit faster to keep warm into the night.

Meanwhile, Elsa lay in the dark corner of her cold, unlit room. Tears run down her face, but soon turn to ice from the extreme cold emanating from her. Her grip on her power seemed to be slipping. What's happening to me? She thought, tears still streaming down her face, only to be turned into trails of ice, frozen to her cheeks. This was supposed to be a day of brightness and beauty. But her harsh, cold surroundings said otherwise to her. She lay there, weeping, until she heard a familiar knock on her door, followed by her sister's voice.

"Elsa? You ok?" The queen could almost hear the voice of that little girl that called out to her every day when they were younger, begging for her to play. Elsa, wanting to say something, only stifled her sobs long enough for Anna to think that she had gone to sleep early. She heard her sister shuffle away, soon to be off to her honeymoon in the morning. Once she was surely alone, Elsa couldn't hold in her sorrow any more, continuing to cry for hours into the night in her snow-filled room, thinking that day would never come.

Halfway through the night, Elsa found herself needing answers. Was she always to be alone? Always to live in solitary cold and darkness? She thought of turning to Anna, but then remembered Kristoff, and if she talked to Anna then he'd want to know, then heaven forbid Olaf

finds out, then she'd be what was on their mind for their entire honeymoon, and she didn't want to ruin that for them. But then an idea hit her. The one being that has always had answers for her when no one else did. The trolls.

Making sure not to be seen, Elsa packed a few things, ordered the guards to tell no one where she was, and headed to the royal stables. The door creaked as it swung slowly open. Elsa cringed, hoping not to wake Sven and Olaf, as this was where they slept at night. Tiptoeing, she made her way over to her horse's stall and grabbed a saddle. Thinking she was home free, she quickly made her way out, but clumsily knocked over a water bucket, frozen with water. The whole stable rung with a loud CLANG. This noise spooked the horses, but most unfortunately awoke the snowman who was slumbering with his reindeer friend.

Groggily, he said, "Elsa? What are you doing?" Then, as if snapping fully awake, he went all-out-Olaf. "Come on! Where ya going? Is Anna coming? Can I come? Why is it so late? Are you sleep walki-" Elsa quickly put her hand over his mouth to shut him up.

"Olaf, you can't tell anyone I was here. Please Olaf, don't." she said

"But-" she stared into his eyes pleadingly. "Oh okay. But only because you said please." he said, grinning.

"Thanks buddy." Elsa said, patting him on the head. And with that, she saddled up her horse, mounted, and rode off towards North Mountain, where the tribe of trolls lie. She determined she had at least 5 hours until sunrise, so she wanted to gain as much ground as she could by then. Little did she know that this journey would answer her questions, not just the trolls.


	3. Chapter 2: The Charge

I trudged to the top of the snow-filled ridge, cupping my hands over my mouth, igniting my breath to keep warm. I sit down, brushing the seemingly endless snow aside from the ground so my behind doesn't freeze while I rest. The sun was going down over the mountains of Arendelle, snow-capped peaks glistening with the orange glow, emanating from the sun. "So beautiful," I thought. "But so cold, so lonely." I sat there, soaking up the last rays of day, revelling in the harsh magnificence that was this land. I thought back to my old home, Restauga. The dry, barren desertlands that we called our home, the endless sand dunes and scorching sun that made surviving the day a feat of its own. An image of my family appeared in my mind, my father the king, my mother, and my younger brother Jeral. He must be about nineteen now, as he was two years younger than me. But with that thought I blocked the image out and turned to my present surroundings.

I looked down at my body. Covered only in old, heavy iron boots that reached to my knees, leather pants, a scarf, and a small jacket that covered half of my torso, I decided that I was not dressed for the weather. Standing up, I scoured the landscape for a place of warmth, or somewhere I could buy better equipment for this environment. I wrapped my scarf around my mouth after I had breathed my last flame for now, and concentrated on the serene scenery. To the north side of the ridge I was on, I only found thick, thriving evergreen forests."No good," I thought. "There's bound to be wolves there, I can't go that way this close to dark." I whirled around, peering into frozen lands. The foliage was more sparse than to the north, but still present. A sort of path went through the trees. Maybe a horse path? Although whoever is coming along to these mountains at this time of year would be completely mad, I figured that was my best chance. Straining my eyes against the light, I saw something that caught my eye. Off in the far, far distance, something like a stack of smoke ascended into the wide-open sky. "Probably take about four hours hiking," I thought. "Better get started." And with that, I jumped from my temporary resting place and began my slippy descension from Arendelle's North Mountain.

After I had been walking for a good three and a half hours, the smoke was so close I could almost smell it. With only about a mile to go, I started thinking of who I might find and what I would say to the person who awaited me. It had been a while since I had come into contact with people that weren't trying to kill or imprison me. As I was peering into the night sky, still thinking, my mind wandered again to my past. I remember Jeral asking my mother when we were younger.

"Mom, why do we hafta go to bed? The sky's awake, why can't we be too?"

"Now now, my young prince," she replied playfully, tucking him into his bed. "The kingdom needs strong well-rested leaders to guide them, doesn't it?"

"I guess so." he said, disappointed.

"Now go to bed," she said, smiling and kissing him on the forehead.

Lost in the beautiful memory, I had almost slipped away from reality completely, until my thought was interrupted by a loud, thundering noise coming from the mountain I'd just climbed down from. Glancing back, I peered to the ridge I had been on, and saw a cavalry unit, bearing Restauga colors, rapidly charging down the mountain, and judging by the size of their pikes I'm thinking that they aren't here to arrest me. The black, red and orange flag stood out against the white snow as they raced towards me. Spinning around frantically, I picked up my leisurely walk in the snow to a sprint in a heartbeat.

Approaching fast to the smoke, I saw a girl there, not much older than me, clothed in light blue garments, horse-riding chaps, with blonde hair atop her head, staring into the fire but not huddling by it as I had expected any sane person to. I saw the faintest glisten of a tear roll down her cheek before she acknowledged me running towards her. As soon as she noticed I was there she quickly wiped off her cheek. I looked around, hoping to find her horse, but to no avail. Strange for someone to wear riding chaps for a hike in the frozen woods.

At first, her attention was on the scantily-clad boy with a staff, but then she looked behind me, eyeing the cavalry that was chasing. Alarmed, she knew that they'd run straight through this passage, and they wouldn't stop to make sure not to trample anyone such as herself. Hurriedly I saw her grab her saddlebag, and as I ran past, I grabbed her by the wrist, shouting "Run!", not even stopping.

As she fell into sync with my stride, I thought that we'd never outrun these horses. They were closing in too fast and we had too much ground to cover. I stole a glance behind us again, seeing that the unit was so close that they were lowering their pikes, ready to impale us. Looking back ahead, I saw what could be our one chance of survival. I turned to the girl.

"We can live, but you're going to have to trust me." I shouted between breaths and over the thundering of hooves. She nodded. I grabbed her by the waist and picked her up, damsel-in-distress style. I thought she'd struggle to get down, but I guess she was too scared to move. Sprinting as fast as I can down this downward slope we were on, I started to concentrate on my legs, below the knees. Thinking of all the pain and turmoil in my life, I concentrated every single amount of pent-up rage into those parts of my body. Jumping up, I shielded the girl's eyes from what was about to happen, as it was going to be extremely bright.

And with that, my feet exploded. An earth shattering boom echoed through the night sky as we were propelled forward at extreme speeds. The wind in my face, howling through my ears, I had never felt more alive than this. Smiling and looking ahead, my eyes began to water from all the wind in them. The girl, still huddled in my arms, looked back at my legs, then at me, wide-eyed.

Startled, she shouted over the loud air in our faces, "How are you doing that?!"

"Born with it," I replied happily. "Comes in handy sometimes though." I looked down, we had climbed in elevation to about a hundred feet above the ground, whizzing by at breakneck speeds. Suddenly, we went over a huge chasm. "Perfect!" I cried.

"What?" she said.

"Look down." I told her.

"Um, I'd rather not." she said back nervously.

"Ok well there's a huge chasm down there, which means that they can't cross over to get us. We're home free."

And of course, as soon as I said that, my fire went out. I can only use it for a limited amount, because my body can't handle all the heat, blah blah blah. A tribe of trolls explained it to me once, I didn't really listen but the basic jist of it was that I can train myself to use it more and longer, which I have. Unfortunately, I just used a bunch of it on the speed boost.

As if to imitate me the girl turned to me and said,

"We can live, but you're going to have to trust me." Curious and without any other options, I nodded and stared toward the the ground, which was coming towards us quickly. She grabbed on to me with one arm, and with the other, wincing, she extended towards the ground as white tendrils of magic flew out. I down to where we were falling and was greeted by a faceful of the softest snow that I had ever encountered.

"Oof" I grunted, as I sank into the fresh powder. I brushed the snow of of my face and looked over at my acquaintance in amazement. "How did you..?"

"Born with it." she said, winking. "Comes in handy sometimes, doesn't it? My names Elsa."

"Jeram," I replied with a smile, realizing that I might finally find some answers.


	4. Chapter 3: The Confrontation

*****Thanks for supporting and following guys! Sorry for a longer wait, but this is a lengthier chapter and I've been in training pretty hard for sports. Hoping to get a new chapter out in a couple days though! Thanks again!**

I was so ready to get some answers, to finally see who I was and why I was this way, this curse of destruction that I am forced to bear. But, before I could say another thing other than my name, my body remembered all the fire I had exerted earlier, and it's like, "Hey man you wanna talk to this new person that could possibly be a solution to your existence? That's cool. You sleep now." and I blacked out, face-planting in the snow I had just landed in.

When I came to, I was laying down on my back, freezing on the icy ground. Elsa, looking worried, was standing over me, holding a chunk of ice wrapped in some torn clothing. With an uneasy look on her face, she put the ice on my forehead, trying to relieve the throbbing headache I had. As my eyes fluttered open, I noticed the sun peaking over the mountains. I had been out for quite a few hours. Seeing I was awake, Elsa's eyes widened and helped me sit up. My whole body ached from the sheer mass of power it had generated in the chase. In a worried tone, Elsa asked, "Are you okay? We landed and I wasn't sure if you had hit your head, and I'm not a doctor," she rambled on, but at the end just said, relieved, "I'm just glad you're alive. That would've been awful if you had died."

"Yeah that would've complicated things a bit," I agreed, finally getting a good look at this interesting stranger. I guess it was the adrenaline or the darkness earlier, but I now realized how beautiful she was. There's cute, and then there's pretty, but this girl was stunning. Tall, skinny frame, extremely light blonde hair, and big blue eyes. Her eyes were like a lake, about to freeze before winter, not so much as to retain it's darkness, but just enough so it's light to foreshadow it's inevitable, icy future.

Elsa smirked at my earlier comment, and helped me to my feet. She said, "Those horsemen haven't found us yet, I doubt that they've even caught up."

Man, I must've flown pretty far if they hadn't gotten to us yet. "How long has it been since we crashed?" I asked, inspecting our surroundings. We were still encompassed by mountains, but just a few hundred feet from where we crashed was the edge of the gorge that I had saw us passing earlier.

"A few hours, maybe three. You were out for quite some time." she responded. I shakily walked over to the cliff, peering down. The dropoff was huge, at least six hundred feet. At the bottom of the a craggy, cold canyon was a river, long frozen from a cold winter. There was no way that Restauga's mounted forces could get across this. " Why were those men after you?" Elsa questioned.

"It's a long story, not one I like to talk about," I said quickly. "Let's just say I'm not exactly welcome back home." I looked over to her. She looked a bit hurt that I wouldn't indulge her, but if I did tell her then there's no way that she'd ever look at me as a human being again. I'm sure she respects secrets, she probably had a lot to keep with her own gifts.

Almost as soon as we started talking about them, the mountain on the other side of the gorge had an entire division of men riding down it. "Speak of the devil." I said. Elsa looked over at me worriedly, but I paid her no attention. My eyes were focused on the leader of the unit that was advancing towards us, none other than the Paladin of Restauga himself. My jaw clenched. Clad in all white iron armor, the young captain stopped at the edge of the opposite side of the impasse, deciding what he was going to do next. Out of options, he decided that the only thing was to yell at me. He dismounted his steed, shaking his fist at me.

"Jeram!" he called. "You know you can't run forever! We'll never stop chasing you!"

I clenched my fists."Captain, chasing me is like trying to catch smoke. You can try and seize it as much as you want, but no matter how hard you try, it always manages to slip through your fingers."

The man smirked. "Oh, but Jeram, haven't you heard? We're not here to catch you," He brought out a scroll and unrolled it. They were orders from my father, the king. He started reading. "By order of His Majesty the King, Prince Jeram Igneal is hereby sentenced to death, by any means necessary." The captain repeated the phrase. "By any means necessary."

Elsa turned to me. "Prince?" she asked, shocked. I responded by stepping in between her and Restauga's forces, the last thing I wanted was for her to get hurt or God forbid killed by people she isn't even involved with.

"So what do you say, brother? You want to come and die as a criminal at home, or get slayed like an animal here?" he called over.

"Jeral, frostbite poses a greater threat to me than you. Last time I checked, there isn't a horse alive that can jump a hundred feet across a gorge." I replied.

"Have it your way." And with a smug grin, he raised his sword, and a volley of arrows were released into the open, blue sky. Thinking that this was the end, I stared at my traitor of a brother, a wide, evil grin on his face. Long ago we were the best of friends, nothing could keep us apart. But, as my powers had started to develop, I posed a greater and greater threat to him, I was removed from his room, and most contact with other people was limited at best. As I accepted the fact that he had won, Elsa dashed in front of me, creating a barrier of ice with her magic. It quickly froze to protect us from any pointed projectile shot at us. Most of the arrows skidded off of the slippery ice, but few sunk a few inches into the thick sheet of packed, frozen barricade. I quickly took one and broke the tip off, leaving the weapon only a half of a foot long in my hand. I concealed it so Jeral couldn't suspect what I was about to do.

I turned to the sorceress next to me. "That was amazing Elsa, thank you." She smiled at me, proud of saving a life. As soon as the men had exhausted their arrow supply, Elsa shrank down the wall until it was eventually as if it was never there. I looked at Jeral again, his expression had changed from satisfied to utterly baffled.

"How did you-" he muttered, in shock.

"It was me, you pompous bastard." called Elsa. I turned my head, surprised she had that in her. "You're leading troops on Arendelle land, and last time I checked that can be counted as a notion of war. I also recall that Restauga doesn't have the largest military, and, unfortunately for you, we do. So if I were you, I'd take your little pony gang and trot back to your desert where all you have to fight is scorpions." I looked at her again, wide eyed, even more surprised. "Daaaaang." I thought. "This girl got some serious fire in her."

Jeral, taken aback, said in reply, "And who might you be to decide the notions of war?"

Elsa straightened up her posture. "The Queen of Arendelle." she said with dignity.

Jeral, intimidated and just as astonished as I was, gave the order to turn and leave. Just as he mounted his horse and began to retreat, I threw the arrow half that I had broken off towards him like a tomahawk. I didn't want to hit him, but annoy him, so I, being a master of throwing knives, aimed for the strap of his saddle that kept him on top of his horse. As it severed, he flipped over and fell, face-first in the snow. Elsa first gasped when she saw I threw it, but started cracking up when she saw what I had actually done. I smiled and looked over at her grinning face. My brother got out of the snow, red-faced, and called,

"This isn't over Jeram! We will come for you!"

I managed to talk in between laughs. "I look forward to it! I always love embarrassing my little brother." I saw him turn and leave, mounted bareback on his stallion. The sight reminded me a lot of a dog with a tail between it's legs.

Elsa, still beaming from the earlier conversation, observed the retreat, saying, "I think that went well, don't you?"

I looked at her, still flabbergasted that I was in the presence of the queen. She caught me staring, my jaw hanging in disbelief of the coincidence of this. I turned and looked at the trodden snow and the hind tails of horses in the distance. Anger soon trumped my curiosity about her, and now I wished my kid brother would come back so I could beat the crap out of him. "It's never good when you've been sentenced to death," I said, not mad at her but she could definitely see that I wasn't in my previous, innocent mood.

"Don't worry, Arendelle is safe. I don't think they'll be coming back anytime soon." she replied in an attempt to comfort me. She put her hand on my shoulder. My rage boiled down to a simmer, enough so I could at least engage in an intelligent conversation.

I chuckled. "If there's one thing that man has, it's persistence. When he says that he's going to do something, he'll do it or die trying. I reckon we haven't seen the last of him. But until then I should be going as far away from here as possible, I don't want to get Arendelle involved in this."

"I think we're already involved. I threatened and insulted the prince, even if you aren't here, they'll raid us on the way to get to you." she replied. I was impressed with her knowledge of war and tendencies of stupid siblings.

"Well I guess I have no choice but to stay and make sure they don't do that." I said.

"Yup." she agreed triumphantly. "Come on, I'll lead you back to the palace." she turned and started going down the horse path that I had seen from the ridge last night. I picked up my staff from the ground and started trailing after her.

"Did you walk all the way out here? Don't you have a horse?" I asked.

"I did, but it got spooked about fifty miles out here, threw me off, and ran away. I couldn't find him, but his hoofprints were leading in the direction of home, so at least that's good. Ever since, I've just been trying to get back. Last night was my first day trying to return." She seemed exhausted. Her fair hair was tangled and unruly, she had bags under her eyes from being awake all night, taking care of me. I knew she wasn't saying so as she walked, but I could tell.

"I think we should stop for now, Elsa. You look drained." I told her.

"We can rest when we get back to the castle." she replied, trudging through the knee-deep snow that didn't seem to be bothering her. I ran out in front of her, grabbing her shoulders, and looking into her eyes with a serious expression.

"Elsa, the palace will still be there in a few hours. Get some rest. We'll move a lot faster when you're a hundred percent."

Droopy eyed, the queen went over to the side of the path underneath a pine tree. She sat down, fixed her garments in a comfortable position, then turned on her side to slumber. With a flick of her wrist, a wall of ice sprang up, separating us. I decided she deserved her privacy, after all she was royalty sleeping in the woods.

I walked over about ten feet by the ice-tent that Elsa had made, gathered a few logs surrounding the pine tree, sat down, and ignited the wood. I was struggling to keep warm in this environment, especially now since I had overused my powers earlier. The snow was taking its toll. Once I started to uncontrollably shiver, I extended my arm and made the fire even larger, huddling in what little clothes I had. I had to keep warm, I didn't want to worry my counterpart that lay nearby.

I sat there, thinking over where I was a few days ago, in my prison, and where I am now. I'm with someone I can actually relate to, talk to, and hopefully cultivate a friendship with. It's been so long since I had made a friend that I wasn't bludgeoning. I looked up at the morning sun. Other people say that it hurts their eyes to look at it, but it's never bothered me. It probably has something to do with my invulnerability to fire. Soon, I was yet again lost in my thoughts. The sun burned so bright, so magnificently, but was always alone, hanging above this Earth to sustain us.

I must've spaced out or fallen asleep or something because when I snapped back to reality, the ice tent was slowly melting. Elsa stood next to me. "Ready?" she asked perkily. She must be feeling a lot more rested.

"You tell me, are you going to fall asleep on the way there?" I asked, smirking. She gave a grin too.

"Yeah that rest was a good idea." she replied, still a bit groggy from just waking up. She stretched, and said, "Okay it's this way to the castle." I saw her starting off in the same direction we were headed in earlier today. I jogged to catch up with her.

"How long do you think it'll be until we get there?" I questioned.

"Well, I had hiked about ten miles in that day, but you blasted us for God knows how far, so I really don't know. It could be today or a week from now." she said, looking straight ahead with concentration, no doubt to try and get her bearings.

"It's alright," I told her. "There's worse things that could happen." She looked over at me and smiled.


	5. Chapter 4: The Journey

**Here's the next chapter guys! Hope you like it, this stuff may seem kind of boring now but once we get through the exposition then I have great things planned! If you have any suggestions/additions you'd like to see in the story or the characters, just leave a review and I'll take it into account. Remember to favorite and follow!**

The crunch of snow underfoot was the only sound that we heard for about two hours as we stumbled along the untrodden path. The sun's rays had subsided for now, so I started feeling the cold more and more. I take in a deep breath and when I breathe out, where there should be white fog from my breath, tongues of flames lick the air in front of me. Elsa looked over.

"You don't talk very much, do you?" she said. I was at a loss for words, but I guess she was right. I was never really good at communicating. Basically my whole life I had been shut away, and when I was finally eighteen and ready to make my own decisions, I started being hunted by my brother. I had never had a real relationship with anyone, except for maybe my mother. But she's gone now.

"I guess I'm just out of practice." I replied. "Being locked away for ten years then hunted for another three, communication wasn't exactly my main focus."

"I'm sorry." the girl uttered. "Can I ask why?"

My will to continue this conversation had passed. Quickly, I said, "You can't." She seemed hurt again that I wouldn't tell her about my past, but then again she hasn't exactly poured out her heart to me about her life back in Arendelle. I decided to ask her, as to not repulse her from me for being too secretive. "How's life at the castle?" I inquired. "It must be nice to have friends and family who care for you. To be accepted seems great."

I looked over to Elsa, still struggling against the deep snow, looking down at the ground solemnly, maybe in thought.

"I wouldn't exactly say that I'm accepted." she told me. "A few years ago, I kind of didn't know how to control my powers, and I went berserk. My kingdom, my people, my family, all hated me, thought I was a monster…" her voice trailed off into silence, and I thought I could hear choked-back sobs.

"Elsa, look at me. Come on, look." I said. I held up my hand, and set it aflame. "Your powers are beautiful, powerful, and controlled. When you went lost control a few years ago, you set an eternal winter, yes?" she nodded, most likely wondering if that winter had even reached Restauga, which it had. "Well a few years ago, the same day I turned eighteen, something worse happened." I told her, painfully trying to finish my sentence. I tried pushing away the bad memories, but the came flooding in. I swallowed back my sins and said, "I went more berserk. I don't even remember what happened. All I know is that one day I'm getting ready to be named captain of the Royal Army, and the next I wake up in the ruins of my palace."

She looked stunned. More than stunned. She was astounded at my power of destruction. I looked at her and thought she was going to run away, and not lead me back to the castle. But she did the exact opposite. After the disbelief had passed, she looked at me with a sense of belonging, a kindred spirit that had came running into her life. "Well we both have had our problems, I guess." she said amiably. "And it seems we're both alone in our struggles."

I peered into her beautiful, light blue eyes. She looked back at me. "We_ were_ alone." I told her.

Night was falling on our first day of trekking across the frozen mountain ranges of Arendelle. Throughout the day, I had learned much about Elsa, mainly about her family and her adventures in the past. She told me about her parents who had passed, which I could relate to. I also heard of her little sister Anna, not unlike my brother Jeral when we were children. I heard of her persistence and vigor, which could only make me think of him. Of course, nowadays he uses that same persistence in hunting me like an animal, but you know, he's family so what can you do. Once she had gotten to the part to where Anna had gotten married, a sadness had rang in her voice, but had vanished once I had spoken again.

Once the sun had vanished completely over the mountaintops, I decided it was time to look for a place to stay for the night. "We should probably think about settling down for tonight." I said to Elsa.

Looking around, she replied. "Yeah, I don't want to be out in the open when the wolves start coming out, although I bet we could take 'em." She said it in a sarcastic tone, but I was pretty sure she was right. We were two pretty strong people fighting alongside each other, I think we could take a lot more than a pack of wolves.

The darkness was consuming the land around us, a definite signal that the evening was upon us. My hand burst into flame to make a torch so that we could see. I put that flame on the end of my flame-retardant staff so I wouldn't have to spend all my energy focusing on my hand. I looked over to the side of the trail and picked out a spot by an old fallen tree that looked safe enough. Elsa followed behind me, both of us gathering logs and dry stick as we went, for firewood. Once we had sufficient supplies, we put the wood in one pile in front us. As I sat down, I melted the snow below below me. Once we were both comfortable, leaning against the log behind our backs, I lobbed a tendril of flame into the fuel. It quickly burst into a blaze.

"How much farther do you think we have?" I asked, eyes transfixed on the fire before me.

"I don't know, but the mountains are becoming less and less steep. The palace is in the flattest region of all, if we keep going at the pace we are now, we should get there within a couple days." she replied, also peering into the flames.

I was disappointed. I was tired and ready to get out of all this damned snow, but I knew complaining to myself was only going to make it worse. As I leaned back to relax, my stomach growled furiously. I hadn't realized how hungry I was. I looked over at Elsa, hoping that she hadn't heard my need for food. If she had any I wanted for her to have it.

"Hungry?" she said with a laugh.

"No, I'm fine, but thanks." I said back.

"Come on,"' she said. "When was the last time you ate?"

"You don't really need to know tha-"

"When?" she interjected sternly.

I thought back to my last meal, it had been a while. A day ago, I was running from my brother, and the day before that I was breaking out of prison. The last food I ate was the day I was being transported to the prison, and that was only a stale piece of bread and some melted snow put into a cup. Or at least I hoped that it was snow. "A couple of days ago," I mumbled softly.

"A couple of days?!" she said in disbelief. "That's not healthy!"

"Well I didn't really have much of a choice, steaks aren't just sitting in the forest, ready to be eaten."

"Here," she said, reaching into her saddlebag. She pulled out an apple and some carrots. "Eat some of this. I ate when you were out earlier this morning."

My mouth watered. Staring at the food hungrily, I wanted nothing more than to devour it all. But then I looked at my fatigued traveling partner. I took out my knife and cut the apple in half, and also set aside three of the five carrots for her. I handed them over to her. "I'm not the only one who needs food."

She reluctantly took the food and took a bite out of her apple half. I did the same. After we had finished our food, Elsa's eyes were starting to droop, but she was fighting to stay awake. After a few minutes of being entertained by this battle of consciousness, I said, "I'll take first watch, you get some sleep." I could tell that she wanted to argue, but she was half asleep already and didn't have much fight left in her, the day of hiking must've taken a lot out of her. She fell asleep on her saddlebag, sitting propped up against the log.

I started staring into the fire, as I often do in these moments of solitude. Through thick and thin, no matter what happened, that was the one constant thing in my life. The never subsiding glow, and warmth of a flame was ever present whenever I was around. I saw the sparks fly up into the night sky, all going out after they had left the fire. That was me, a spark trying to get away from the fire, but it always following me. When I was back in Restauga, training as a knight, my fellow warriors had called it a gift from God, to make me an unstoppable force in battle. But I knew better than that. This was a curse, brought upon me for reasons that are beyond my knowledge. Sure, it can be useful at times, but the risks are too great for it to be worth it.

Elsa began stirring in her sleep, possibly getting cold. She curled up next to me and unintentionally laid her head on my shoulder. I decided to let it be for now, whatever helped her sleep better is fine with me. I looked up at her face as she slumbered. She was breathing strangely, every breath was the pattern of a long inhale through the nose, and a light puff through the mouth. It was cute, in a way. I looked back at the fire, still pondering my situation.

Lost in thought, I had no idea that I had stayed up all night until I saw the sun rising above the snow-capped peaks. "Crap." I said aloud. I had been so comfortable that I hadn't thought to wake Elsa up. I nudged her awake, head still resting on my shoulder. At first, she just groaned unconsciously, the sentence "Five more minutes" may have escaped her lips as well. But then, her eyes snapped open, and she realized where she had rested for the past few hours.

Springing to her feet, she said "Oh my God. I am so sorry. I didn't mean-"

"It's fine," I interrupted. "I didn't want to wake you, we had a hell of a day yesterday."

"Did you sleep at all?" she questioned.

"Yeah, I dozed off a time or two," I lied, not wanting to worry her.

"You should've woken me, you need rest too."

I shrugged it off and stood up. "I bet that I'm a lot more used to it than you, Elsa."

"How so?" she replied.

I sighed. "When you're being trailed by murderers, you don't get too much sleep."

"Oh." she said quietly. "Well, no time like the present! Let's go!" She started off on the trail again. Ignoring my desire to lay flat on the ground and sleep for the next twelve hours, I followed her. She was so full of enthusiasm and ready to tackle this hike, we trudged along at an even faster pace than yesterday.

Once we could see the sun setting yet again on our journey, Elsa was breaking down. She had pushed herself really hard earlier in the day to cover more ground that she was running out of steam here at the end. When starting down a huge hill, I saw a glimmer in the distance.

"Hey Elsa, what's that?" I pointed to the flash of light I saw far away. She followed the direction where my finger was pointing, squinting against the light of the setting sun.

Panting, she said, "Home." But with that, her legs gave out from fatigue. Alarmed, I caught her before she could roll down the hill. I picked her up as I had the first day that we had met, knowing that she needed to get to real living accommodations, and soon. Her forehead, usually cold, along with the rest of her skin, was burning against my tan palm. She must have gotten sick from staying too much in the wilderness.

I needed to think of a way to get us down to the palace, and quickly. Suddenly, I had an idea. It wasn't as extreme as my flying one yesterday, but it derived from that. I secured my grip on the light woman, and placed the ball of my foot on the frozen-over snow. Keeping my heel up, I sent sparks flying from the bottom of it, forcing us forward. Placing one foot in front of the other, I soon got the hang of my new skill, and we were speeding through the trees, making great time. I guess that the slipperiness of the ice and the heat generated from my heels made this possible. Kicking it up a notch, I started sprinting towards the castle by the sea, leaving a trail of fire in my wake.

I got there just in time. Just as the guards were closing the gates for the night, I came bursting through them. "I need help! I found the Queen in the woods, and she collapsed when we were heading back here!"

Immediately, a huge staff of servants came flocking to me with lanterns that illuminated the whole courtyard. I then saw a burly, blond man and a little red-headed woman parting the crowd, crying Elsa's name. The man took her out of my grasp. He looked at me gratefully as the woman said, "Thank you for bringing her home. It must have been awful trying to get her back here in all that snow."

"It's fine, I was headed this way anyways. Besides, she could've died out there if someone hadn't come to help her out."

She snickered. "I think that my sister can take care of herself."

The big blonde guy interrupted her. "You must be exhausted," he said. "We've got a whole wing of guest bedrooms that you can stay in for a while if you have nowhere else to go, my wife and I are indebted to you after all."

"Thank you, I'd appreciate that." I replied. I followed them as they entered the castle doors. The woman who must have been Anna led me to where I'd stay for at least the night while her husband and an army of servants brought Elsa to her room. As I was about to close the door, I heard Anna say, "Thank you again, you can tell us all about what happened in the morning."


	6. Chapter 5: Settling In

**Alrighty guys, new chapter time! Little bit of fun in this one! I react to how you react, so leave a review or better yet a follow/favorite to motivate me to write more! The more motivated I am, the better and more I write. Thanks for reading!**

As the door shut behind me, I took a moment to look at my new surroundings. I was in a lavish guestroom, what you would expect from a room built in the kingdom of a wealthy nation such as this. A fireplace was stockpiled with split logs on one wall of the room, with large windows on either side. I sat down on the couch facing the fireplace, my legs exhausted from the sprint here. I held out my hand and lit the fireplace in front of me, instantaneously bursting to life. Soon, the crackle of the flames overpowered the throbbing of the headache that I had.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep, despite my severe lack of it in the past few days. I started having a staring contest with the blaze in front of me, as I often caught myself doing. I tried to relax, but every time I got away from reality, my concern for Elsa brought me back. I laid down lengthwise on the couch in an effort to fall asleep. I thought for sure that I wouldn't submerge into unconsciousness, but I was launched into a dream as soon as my head rested on the pillow.

This is one of the other reasons that I didn't tell Elsa of why I don't sleep. The dreams. Usually, a symbol of joy and lightheartedness, dreams are welcomed by others. But not me. Ever since I could remember, I was plagued with the worst nightmares imaginable. Worse than that, they were sometimes premonitions of events that were to pass in the future. Usually when I do get to sleep, I'm only under long enough to rest, before my mind can conjure up any bad memories or visions to haunt me.

This time, I awoke in a vivid dream. It was a memory. All around me, my palace in Resauga was destroyed, burned to the ground. And I knew I was to blame. The fire, still burning around my body, started licking my arms and torso. At first I thought_ no big deal, it can't hurt me anyways_. So it was a huge shock to find it baking my flesh. I looked down in horror, but the flames had transformed, into a white iron sword. I looked up. A man was wielding the sword, pointing it at my throat. Standing above me was my little brother as he was now, not when this memory had happened.

_"Nowhere to run, Jeram. All of your friends have deserted you, your powers have failed you, and the love you spoke so hopefully of is nowhere to be seen."_ he said with an evil grin on his face. _"You were once my brother. But now, this,"_ he pointed to our surroundings. _"I now know that you're nothing but a monster."_

I held up my hand to try to deflect the blow with my powers, but no flames came. My brother started laughing maniacally as he brought the sword down on my neck. Right as I could feel the blade tearing into my muscle, the dream shifted.

I was now in a steamy yard filled with an ensemble of boulders laying in circles around me. Steam was coming from all sides, heating up the yard. I got a good look at the mossy boulders and found something peculiar about them. They were all perfectly round, which seemed an odd coincidence for dozens of boulders that were all in the same place.

Suddenly, the ground started to rumble, and the boulders were shaking uncontrollably. After a few seconds of this calamity, the rocks popped into small, golem-like creatures. Trolls. These mystical creatures were talked of in legends and folklore, but I had only seen them in real life once, but that was while I was dying from my powers when I was younger. A large one, who seemed to be the leader, stepped in front of me.

_"Jeram,"_ he said, in a serious tone, which was kind of funny granted that it was coming from a small rock goblin thing. _"You must learn to control this power that you have. It's one thing to be able to use it in combat, but another entirely to control it in all aspects. Fear is always your enemy. Look for the person that can quench your eternal flames, to hold them back but to not extinguish who you are."_

Before I could say anything, my vision started zooming out, making the trolls appear farther and farther away. I extended my arm to reach out to them , but it was too late, I was plunging into the darkness of my dream world, my answers slipping through my fingers, yet again.

My eyes snapped open. As I bolted upright, flames burst out of my nose and mouth uncontrollably. The fire launched about ten feet in the guestroom, but didn't touch anything enough to cause a problem. I looked around to see if I had damaged anything in my sleep. The room seemed untouched, but the couch that I had been sleeping on was scorched on the cushions. Inspecting the damage, I cursed as I decided that this was beyond repair. I made a note to myself to make up for this.

I usually don't ignite in my sleep, but I always wear fire-resistant clothes so if I do I'm always prepared. It can be kind of embarrassing at times, like if you wet the bed when you were older, this is kind of the pyromaniac equivalent. Good thing Elsa wasn't leaning on my shoulder tonight, she would've gotten a face full of fire.

I looked around. The sun had just began it's ascension into the eastern sky. I stood up from my now burnt couch and brushed the ashes off of my clothes. Stretching, I realized that I must have smelled awful. Not wanting to look like a ruffian in front of the royal family, I went into the bathroom portion of my quarters and drew myself a bath.

As I slid in, goosebumps went up across my body. This water was freezing! Thankfully, I had a remedy for that. I heated up my body not so much as to ignite into flames, but just enough so the water started to bubble and boil around me. "Aaaaaahhh…" I said, putting my hands behind my head in a relaxed position. The first real bath that I'd had in years. While in prison, their equivalent of washing is splashing a bucket of that day's drinking water on you while you rot in your cell. Of course, I never stuck around long enough for them to "wash" me that frequently.

Steam started rising into the small guest bathroom. After washing and soaking for a few minutes, I got out, dried off, and got dressed in my desert-roaming clothes. I still wasn't dressed for winter, but at least I was in a sanctuary of warmth and comfort.

I came out of my room feeling the better than I had felt in years. Recently, my identity as a human being was covered up by being hunted like an animal by my own people. I never bathed, except for the occasional jump in a lake or stream, and never slept more than three hours a night. Staying here, at this place, for just one night was refreshing and so helpful to make me feel not as a dog but as a man again.

As I was leaving my room, I was adjusting the sheath of the two-foot knife that hung around my belt with one hand, grasping my staff with the other. When I opened my door, occupied with my belt strap, I bumped into a guard that was standing outside my door. "Oof." I said as I ran into the armoured man. I looked up at him in confusion. He was holding his fist up as to rap on the door when I whirled it open.

He stood up straight. "The Queen and the royal family invite you to Her Highness' chambers for a meeting."

Wanting to see how Elsa was doing, I said, "Alright, let's do it."

"Follow me please." he replied, turning around and walking down the hallway. There was only silence except for the consistent clomp of my staff hitting the ground every stride. As we passed the main foyer, a group of young servant girls, maybe in their late teens, stared and giggled at me as I walked by. I rolled my eyes.

After about ten minutes of walking, the guard finally stopped at a white door. I inspected it. Along with the white background, blue images of ice and snowflakes were painted around the woodwork, probably put on when Elsa was just a little girl. "You can go in now," the guard said, turning around and leaving. I heard talking as I grabbed and turned the brass doorknob, the bolt in the door clicking as I turned. I push it aside, and looked in amazement at the room.

Everything, from the rug, to the window, to the dresser, were all coated in miniature icicles, only about half an inch long. Snowflakes floated down in slow motion from the ceiling. "Woah." I said. Three figures looked over at me from the bed. On the only unfrozen chairs in the room, sat the woman who I thought was Anna and her husband. I looked on the bed. Elsa was there, sitting up on top of her covers. Her makeup made it look as if she had been crying recently.

"Jeram." she said, quickly hopping off of the bed and giving me a hug. "Thank you for bringing me all the way here, it must have been such a burden."

I don't know if it was because of my fire powers' presence in the room or what, but the room started to seem much warmer. "Are you okay?" I responded. "You seemed a bit feverish when I got you here last night."

"Yeah, I'm fine, the doctors said it was just due to fatigue." she answered. Then, she turned around and gestured to the others sitting in the room. "So, Jeram, this is Anna and Kristoff. Anna and Kristoff, this is Jeram." It looked like she wanted to say my title as a prince, but I think she wanted me to tell them myself. Anna curtsied politely and Kristoff gave me a firm handshake. He seemed like someone who was tough and a hard worker, even though he was pretty much royalty.

"Again, we are extremely grateful for what you've done," Anna told me yet again. "If you want to stay here in the castle, it's the least we could do."

I looked at Elsa with hope in her eyes. "Actually I was thinking of stopping my travels for a while, and what's a better excuse than being offered a place in the kingdom. Of course, I'd have to earn my keep."

Elsa's eyes shone with happiness. "We can work everything out over breakfast." she said happily. "I know that you must be hungry."

"Breakfast does sound good," Kristoff said from behind her.

"Let's eat then!" Anna said chipperly.

The sound of silverware clinking against the fine palace china was all to be heard in the first moments of the meal. I was trying as hard as I could not to devour the food in front of me, rather to reserve myself as a crowned prince would. I tried remembering back to my childhood family meals that I had every night, how my parents strictly trained me to be king, starting with the dinner table. Of course, none of that mattered now, but the etiquette was good to know in this situation at least.

Feeling the awkwardness, Anna broke the silence. "So Jeram, we're _dying_ to know." She was very animated in the face as she talked. "How did you meet Elsa? LIke was she getting hunted by a pack of rabid animals or what?"

"Actually, I was the one under attack. I found her when I was running." I replied

"Really? Wow! From who?"

"Yeah, from who?" Kristoff said sceptically. He seemed a bit protective of all of his family, being the "man of the palace" so to speak.

I looked down at my plate, not wanting to answer the question. "The Restauga cavalry…" I said quietly.

"Hmph that's strange. Any idea why?" Anna said.

"It's a long story."

"One that he barely told me." Elsa interjected.

"It's a long story that I don't like to talk about." I added.

Kristoff saw that I was uncomfortable, and kindly changed the subject. Unfortunately, this question also wasn't in my favor. "So, Jeram, where do you hail from? What do you do?"

"That's part of the long story." I said, "But I'm from Restauga." I decided to indulge them so they don't think they were letting a criminal into their house. (Which technically they were, but it was an accident and an unfair verdict, okay?)

"Resauga huh? What did you do over there? Blacksmith, turban merchant, desert hunter? I've always wanted to go and work there."

He obviously was no stranger to hard work. "Crowned prince, actually." I said.

Anna burst out laughing, and Elsa looked at her, annoyed. Anna's laughs were quickly cut short with a random "Ow." I thought I could feel my feet get cold. When I glanced under the table, some ice trailed on the ground from Elsa to Anna's toe, now probably stubbed. Anna trying to swallow the pain in her toe, said, "That was a good one." she turned to Elsa, wincing. "He's pretty funny."

Elsa, keeping a calm composure, said, "Maybe if you listen to him more instead of laughing, you'd know that he wasn't joking." Anna looked over to me, the grin wiped off of her face. Kristoff also looked in disbelief. I pulled my collar down, revealing a tattoo of my family crest, a tattoo that every other royal has of their own crest. They looked in amazement at my collarbone, not believing their eyes.

"Wait a second. If you're the prince, why were you being chased by your own men?" Anna asked.

I looked down at my plate, every scrap of food was gone from it. I wiped my mouth politely with the cloth napkin that I had. Looking at Elsa, I said, "May I be excused?" She nodded, and I stood up, grabbed my staff, and started off in the direction of my room, unsure what to do next. I heard Elsa say something to Anna with a scornfully, but couldn't make out what it was. I heard her get up and jog over to me.

"Where are you going?" Elsa asked.

I turned around and pointed behind my back with my thumb. "Just going to my room-"

"No we're going into town, you're going to get some real human interaction today."

I wasn't exactly pleased with this, but it seemed out of my control. Elsa was bound and determined on getting into the marketplace or something today. She went and told a servant something, and the young boy, no more than twelve, glanced at me for a second, and went running off on the errand assigned to him.

"Where'd you send him?" I asked.

"You'll see." she said, her big eyes glittering. I saw the little guy sprinting back towards us with some fabric in his hand. Almost tripping over it, he handed it Elsa. She patted him on the head, and he left us, exhausted. I looked over to her. She was holding a black cloak with red-orange trim, which I'm guessing was for me. She handed it over. "I noticed you were basically dying of the cold on the way here, I took a shot in the dark and decided you needed something more than those desert clothes to survive the winters here. Do you like it?"

I wrapped myself in the warm, high quality robe. This was_ much_ better. "I love it." I replied. "And it even matches all the other clothes I have on." I said, inspecting my clothes.

"I'm glad, now you won't freeze to death every time we go outside."

"Thank you Elsa." I said sincerely. She beamed. We walked out into the courtyard, the chilly air now barely having an effect on me. "Where are we going?"

"The market," she replied as she gave the order to open up the gates. As the heavy, wooden doors swung open, I was hit with a wave of noise. The once-quiet courtyard was filled with sounds of laughter, music, and singing. The merchants cried their wares from their stalls, children screamed for their mothers, and the horses' whinnying were a combination of this symphony of cacophony.

At first, I was confused on how to react. I had been alone for so long, I was intimidated by this many people, for when many were gathered in one place around me, they usually had swords drawn, ready to slice-and-dice me. But, as I went along with Elsa, I was comforted by the busy-ness of the marketplace, the friendly, hive-like aspect of it. Elsa seemed pleased to be here as well. As we walked past, the sea of people parted, making me feel like Moses. I could feel the eyes upon us as we walked by, and the noise subsided a bit. Not so much as to completely stifle it, but it was definitely less overpowering. Elsa seemed like she noticed it too, but it didn't seem to bother her. She waved and smiled at the people around, but mainly the focus was on me, the man dressed in strange clothes and an unusual tan for the depths of winter.

Amidst all of the bustle of the people around us, there was one figure that stood out the most. He was about my height, maybe a little shorter, with a bald head and an unruly brown beard on his face. And the beard wasn't the only big thing about this man. He was huge. His arms were the size of tree trunks, and was obviously fit when he was younger, but now had a protruding beer belly. Big bald and nasty was being extremely obnoxious, shouting at people behind the stalls, cursing at the top of his lungs, and basically just causing a major disturbance. He was obviously drunk.

As we were walking by, he lumbered his over to us. Apparently he was either too drunk or too ignorant to know who was standing before him. "Well look what we's got here. A good lookin' couple o' youngn's." he said, stumbling in the words between hiccups. Elsa was repulsed by his rude manner and the alcohol on his breath. I stepped in between him and her. He looked at me. "Whaddya tink ya be doin' lad? If I's wanst to look at yur girlfiend ova thare than you's ain't gonna stop me, savvy?"

"I don't think so." I said, grabbing Elsa by the arm to lead her away.

"Now wait just a moment!" he replied, enraged. I could see his bald head turning red, not used to someone standing up to him. "I said if I wanst ta look at her than I will!" He took Elsa's other arm. He must have gripped her pretty hard, because she started to squeal once he took hold.

Combining speed and demon-like power, batted his arm away with all my strength, hitting him right on his elbow, against the joint. Hearing a satisfying crack, his arm swung to his side. A few gasps escaped from the crowd around us. I looked at his face, which was now wracked with pain. He was holding his broken arm with his other hand. I took him by the collar and slammed him up against one of the posts of a stall. He winced with the pain his back was experiencing. With a mixture of adrenaline and rage, lifted him up against the post. I could feel my corneas heating up. When my eyes heat up, that's when I get really angry. Thankfully, only this man before me could see the fire escaping from my pupils.

"Now," I said, trying to keep my voice low and controlled, which was hard with all the anger coursing through my veins. "You are going to go home, sober up, and NEVER bother anyone again. Understand?" I leaned in close so I could whisper into his ear. _"Or I will come and kill you."_

He nodded, tears now streaming down his face, either from the pain from his arm or the fear of losing his life. I looked at the frightened merchant who owned the stall I slammed the drunk against. I tossed him a gold coin.

"Thanks for letting me use your shop." I said to him, walking back to Elsa.

While my back was turned, I heard the large bearded man cry, "Devil! Demon! Monster!" The crowd turned into an uproar, not necessarily against me, as they knew the man was hammered, but just in concern for themselves and their children. I ignored them. Elsa came up and hugged me.

"Thanks for saving me again," she said, her head buried in my chest.

"This is why I don't go out much." I looked over at the man, exclaiming my nonexistence as a human being. "Because of people like him. They don't see me as who I am, but just as what I am."

"This was a bad idea, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, it's mine." I said as we walked back to the castle.


	7. Chapter 6: Solitary

**Ok guys, I pumped this one out tonight alone so that's why it's a little shorter, but worry not, big things are a-comin'! Plan on this Friday night for a new post! (Hopefully 3000+ words) Thanks to all my followers, you guys rock, and to those who don't follow, hit that button! Gimme a review for some inspiration and some constructive criticism if you have some! Peace!**

Just as Elsa and I were about to enter the gates, I stopped. She looked back at me. "What's wrong?" she said, puzzled.

"I-I just don't really think I should stay at the castle since, you know, I attacked a civilian."

"Don't be silly, he was way out of line." she replied supportingly. "And plus you were just defending your queen."

"I guess you're right."

"Come on," she said, gesturing inside as the guards opened the door for us. "It's lunchtime anyways."

Had it really been that long? It seemed as if we had just finished breakfast and were heading out to "interact" an hour ago. I guess time flies when you're having fun and threatening drunkards.

"I'm not really that hungry." I told her, which was the truth. I was lucky if I had a scrap of food every other day, so three large, royal meals a day didn't really appeal to me. "I think I'm going to go for a walk."

"You want company?" she replied hopefully.

I sighed. As much as I wanted her to be with me, I knew she couldn't. She was already in enough danger as it is being around me, I wanted her to be safe more than her to be with me. "No, I really just need to think some things out for myself. I don't think I'd be great company."

Her expression fell gloomily. "Alright. Just be back by dinner. Don't be late!" she replied, trying to restore the playfulness that we had earlier.

I watched as the wooden door to the palace shut behind her light blue cloak. I looked down at the ground, putting my hand on the door, as if to reach out to her but knowing that it won't do any good. I started walking towards the woods that bordered the castle's walls. Trudging through the snow, I started getting cold again. I put up the hood of my new cloak, shielding my face from the biting north wind. Hiking deeper and deeper into the forest, the slope I was going on started to steepen. Soon, I was scaling a mountain, thinking the whole way up there, trying to relieve my anger.

Once I had walked for a considerable amount of time, I stopped at a plateau-like landform, a single outcropping squeezed between a craggy, frozen cliff and a free fall down to the bottom of the mountain. I glanced around. Sick of all the snow, I summoned fire to my hands. With a single, fluid, wave-like motion, I brought the flames upon the snow, melting it away until only green, matted grass remain. Now seeing everything clearer, I noticed two boulders in the middle of this small meadow/plateau, spaced about twenty yards away from each other. I walked over to the nearest one, dropping to my knees from the tiredness of walking. I laid my staff on the wet grass next to me. I pressed my knuckles up against the cold, rough surface of the boulder. Staring at it, I reflected on the events of the day. Looking intently at it, I could swear I could still hear the obnoxious bellows of the drunken idiot in the market. Then I heard the cool, condescending laugh of my brother. To top it all off, a certain ringing started echoing in my ears: the screaming of my own mother.

As soon as that sound came into focus, anger started billowing up inside of me. Not just anger, but hatred. Hatred for my brother, hatred for that awful drunk, hatred even of this snow around me. But most of all, it was hatred for myself. For all the times that I could've been there but wasn't. For all of the times that even when I was there, I just made things worse. I couldn't take it anymore. With all my strength, I cocked back my right arm, and brought my fist crashing into the boulder. Pain coursed through my whole body as the fingers in my right hand shattered. I looked at my knuckles. They were torn and bleeding, the blood running down my forearm. I smiled maniacally, but then the memory of that fateful day came back, followed by the tortured screams of my mom. "Damnit." I said, putting my hand on the rock. Fire filled my eyes. I took my left hand now, cracking it on the stone as well. With more and more fury, I started screaming, "DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT!" With every word, I broke my hands repeatedly on the rock, not knowing what else to do. My blood coated a splotch on it, my broken hands aching, but I had now somehow obsessed myself with breaking this rock apart. I stood up on my feet, blasted myself into the air, and fell down towards it, my fiery leg extended. This boulder would feel my wrath.

But, as soon as my flames hit it, I was blasted away by a force from it. I looked in wonder as my blood on the stone started to burn with my own fire. Suddenly, a crimson seal appeared, with what looked like the same fire magic symbol that my staff had on it. A wave of brilliant light washed over me, emanating from the rock. My hands healed before my eyes, and my mind was cleared of the incessant ringing that took place earlier. The seal, getting brighter and brighter, was the first light to ever hurt my eyes. I squinted, trying to at least get at least a glance of what was happening, but the luminescence was too great. I closed my eyes and shielded them with my forearm until it dimmed. Within a minute, the light had completely vanished, but was followed by a loud crack. I looked over to it. A gash was cut clean through the middle, but not all the way through. I looked at it, puzzled. The fire emblem was etched into the stone, and I looked at the base of the stone, where some grass and dirt were pushed away by the brilliant light. There were ancient runes encircling it. Pondering what it meant, I looked over to the other rock. Elsa. I thought.

Without pausing another moment, I turned around, and jumped off of the edge of the cliff. Free falling for a few seconds, I ignited by legs and was soon burning through the night sky, the wind in my face and a new goal, a new piece to the puzzle.


	8. Chapter 7: Origins

**Hey hey hey readers! Here's the next installment, some crazy things start happening in this one! I'll get the next one out Tuesday at the latest. Remember to show some love in the form of comments, follows, and favorites!**

Descending onto the castle, I was a streak of gold, blasting through the darkness. I touched down right in front of a startled guard. He raised his spear at me, but once seeing who I was, immediately lowered it. "Sir Jeram," he said. "My apologies-"

"None are necessary, friend." I replied, putting my hand on his shoulder as I passed. I quickly ran into the castle, sprinting towards Elsa's room. It had to be late, but I didn't care. This was something that needed to be dealt with right now. Once I had gotten to her hallway, I stopped in front of the white, decorative door. I knocked, not expecting for her to be awake, but, as soon as my hand hit the door a few times, I heard bustling around, her scrambling to get the door.

"One second!" she called from inside of the room. It was another minute before she opened the door. Her eyes widened when she saw me. "Jeram! I'm glad you're back, I thought you weren't returning when we missed you at dinner, and we ate without you, and Anna couldn't stop talking-" I put my index finger to her lips to stop her. She had a habit of going on and on. She looked at me expectantly with those big, baby blue eyes.

"I found something." I said, turning away. The expression on her face fell. "In the mountains. I think it has something to do with our powers."

The disappointed expression on her face was replaced with one of curiousity. "Really? Well let's go!" she enthusiastically replied, whirling around to get her things. She went around the room, picking up things, saying as she went along, "I need this, and this, and this, and- oh! What's this doing here?" She took another five minutes before we were able to finally head out. She started heading out to a side exit.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

She turned around and pointed behind her. "Just the stables, we aren't going to be walking there are we?"

I smiled. "Nope, but we don't need horses either."

Puzzled at first, she then realized out mode of travel. Alarmed, she reluctantly went with me to the outside gates. "I didn't really enjoy this the first time," she said, getting ready to fly.

"Don't worry," I replied, picking her up. "We'll be fine. I've gotten a lot better since the first time I did it."

"Wait, you're telling me when we were getting chased that that flying was just an experi-wooooaaah!" She was cut short as I shot us both hurtling towards the stars. I looked down and saw a perfect circle of grass, contrasting to the snow, of where we had taken off. The fire from my legs must have melted it. I started finding my way back to the plateau where I had been earlier, which wasn't all too hard from it being the only area with grass. We touched down, and I put Elsa down gently. She looked a little dizzy.

"You okay?" I asked, laughing.

She put her hand to her head, then opened her eyes that had been squeezed shut during the ride. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just gimme a minute."

Once she had recuperated, she looked around. "What is this place?"

"I dunno, but I found it when I was walking, and there's something special about these two rocks that are here. When I touched this once with my powers, it glowed until it cracked down the middle. It's gotta be some kind of magic, there's runes everywhere."

Elsa glanced at the cracked boulder, running her fingers over the top of it. Her eyes soon fixed upon the fire emblem that was on it. "Hey this is the same symbol that's on your staff."

"I know." I said. "The symbol of fire magic."

"But there's something different." she added. "There's these two little things in behind it, come take a look."

I walked over and kneeled down as she scooted over. We both sat there, peering at this tiny symbol no bigger than my palm. She was right. There was something different between this emblem and the one on my staff. This one had two crescent shapes behind it, both pointing up, like two thorns maybe? I decided it must just have been decorative. "It doesn't matter." I told her. What we need to do is get you to the other one."

"Why?" she asked. I took out my knife and took her hand. "What are you doing?!" she blurted out, alarmed. She winced as I pricked her fingertip.

"Put some of that on the other stone." I commanded. "It's just how it works." She did as I told her. "Now, freeze the rock."

"Are you sure you know what you're doing? Because this seems a bit sketchy." she looked at the expression on my face and decided that I wasn't joking. With one lunge, she extended her arms, and ice shot up on and around the boulder. For a second, nothing happened. But then, a familiar sensation started to wash over me. A blue light was coming from the frozen rock, pushing both of us back with it's power. "What's happening?!" she shouted over the noise of the sheer mass of power that was escaping to their air around us.

"Don't worry, it ends soon," I called back assuredly. Sure enough, the blinding light subsided into a glow until it had gone away completely.

"What was that?!" Elsa said, befuddled.

"That, was exactly what was supposed to happen." I answered, moving past her to inspect the boulder. She squatted down next to me. A similar crest had popped up during the glowing, but this one was centered around a snowflake, as I had guessed. We must not have noticed the rock cracking because when I moved over to it and melted the excess ice on it, the same kind of gash was in the middle of this one too. Inside the gash, instead of a fire emblem, there was a rune of a snowflake. I stood up from examining it. "Huh. Well now that that's over with, I have no idea what's we just accomplished, other than breaking a couple of boulders."

As if there was a force that just heard me, the ground started to shake. In between the two stones, green light shot up from the earth, arcing through the dark sky. Even more power started exploding in front of us. Once the light returned into the ground, an opening was cut into the mountain before us. We walked over to it. Leading down was a series of old stone steps, carved into the earth many years ago. I tried looking down into it, but could only see the pitch black darkness. There were no torches to be found, but as I stood on the first step, I saw the engravings of the two symbols. I lit my staff on fire as a torch. "Come on," I beckoned to Elsa. "I think we're in the right place." I held out my hand to the frightened girl before me. I looked at her with an expression of comfort. That seemed to help her, and she took my hand as we plunged into the dark.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever. Minding our step on the slippery ground, movement was precarious at best. My torch was only bright enough to give us a few feet of visible distance. "How long do you think this goes?" Elsa asked, still with her fingers laced in mine.

"I don't know, it could go all the way into the heart of the mountain for all we know." That made her cling closer to me. We walked for what seemed like hours, but finally, we came upon an opening. Needing to see what exactly we were up against, I lobbed an extremely bright fireball into the darkness to illuminate the cave. When it lit up, I was starstruck. This place was huge. And when I say huge, I mean it. This thing was massive, as if the whole mountain was hollowed out. We could have taken ten castles and put them in here if we wanted to. But the sheer size wasn't the only wondrous thing about this place. Everywhere, lining the cliff-walls, were millions of pure-white minerals.

"Wow. I've never seen anything so beautiful." said Elsa in amazement.

"It sure is something." I replied, staring off into space. Once I had snapped out of the sort of trance I had gone into, I looked down to the bottom of the cave. The one thing that caught my eye in the distance was an altar, one with a red cloth, candles, and some other white object that I couldn't see from this far away. I nudged Elsa and pointed to it. "Look over there."

"What is that?"

"We're going to find out. Come on." I told her, descending once again down the slippery path. We walked for another good half an hour before we reached the altar, but once we were there, my fireball that I had thrown out in the middle of the cavern extinguished. The only light was from the ominous candles. Elsa went from holding my hand to clinging onto my arm, clearly frightened. My pulse had quickened too, but I wasn't going to let her know that.

_"Jeram Igneal."_ a familiar voice called out from the dark behind the altar. I grasped my staff instinctively, knowing all too well when I'm addressed by my full name that usually means I'm about to get attacked. _"The prophecy didn't lie. You did find your way here."_ My grip slackened. I knew that voice, but it was impossible. No amount of magic could make this so.

"Who are you, what do you want?!" I aggressively shouted back.

A large, floating brazier from above burst aflame, lighting up all around us. A figure came into focus. I started feeling sick to my stomach once I saw who it was. "Im-impossible! You're dead!" The woman standing before me was someone that she couldn't be, one who died in my arms: my mother. Wearing the same purple and black dress she had worn that fateful day of the explosion, she reminded me of what I had done and what I had failed to do.

_"But yet I am here, Jeram. I am not your mother, merely a projection of her, conjured by a spell of those more powerful than you have ever seen. I am here to carry out a task for them now."_ she replied.

"And what might that be?" I asked, still shaken up. I could feel Elsa's scared but caring eyes looking at me, and felt her grasp on my right arm tighten.

The wall behind my mother's projection brightened. I heard a gasp from Elsa. The two crests that had been on the rocks from earlier were also inscribed on the cavern walls, but these were each larger than the courtyard of the castle. Mine still had those two thorn-looking things in the background, making me wonder what they meant. _"About twenty years ago, two children were born, each on a solstice. One summer, one winter. They each had powers over the climate in which they were born into, but once was a gift, the other a curse. One's gift wouldn't have even had existed if weren't for the other's curse."_ She looked directly at me. "_When I was pregnant with you, I became terribly ill. Neither medicine nor earthly magic could save me. So, we turned to the Deal Maker. He was an awful creature, one that lurks in the dark corners of the world, preying on those so desperate to seek him out. We made a deal. If I, along with the baby was to be cured, then the child was to be his to do with as he pleased once he had come of age. We were desperate, so we made the deal in hopes that he'd die or forget about you. But he never forgets. He never dies."_ I didn't like where this was going. I scrunched my eyebrows with hostility, but she continued. _"I was healed, and you were born, but it was a hollow victory indeed. When you came out of the womb, you were born with those markings on your arm."_ She pointed to my right arm, covered in black tribal tattoos, stretching from my wrist, all the way up to my shoulder, and partially onto my chest.

"You said that you had given them to me as a symbol of the crowned prince when I was younger!" I exclaimed frantically, trying to keep a grasp on everything I'd been told in life, which was now slipping through my fingers.

_"We lied to protect you, to help you feel normal."_ She broke eye contact with me. _"No child should have to know that they're a demon."_

My eyes widened as my knees buckled. I felt lightheaded from what she had just said, my brain trying to comprehend what she had just told me. I sat down, thinking. Elsa was worried as well. What did that mean for her if I was a demon? I stood up and pointed my finger at my "mother". "You're lying!" I cried. "I'm not a demon, I'm a fire wizard!" A ring of white flames erupted around us, almost scorching the ice queen. The projection of my mom had eyes as white as the flames. She was obviously enraged by my defiance in believing her.

_"Look at that crest on the wall! What do you think that is?!"_ she yelled with fury. _"That front flame symbol means fire magic, yes, but look at the additions onto the back!"_

She was talking about the two pointy thorn-like things in the background. Then it hit me. They weren't thorns. They were horns. I remembered back to my brief education in magic runes, and remembered one important things about those: the symbol of the Devil. The Uber Demon. The second most powerful being for us to ever know about. She was right. I wasn't human. I was a cursed being, that looked like a human, walked like a human, and even felt like a human. But I wasn't. And that feeling was awful. I dropped to my knees, placing my palms on the craggy rock, blinking away tears of disbelief. "You're right." I exclaimed. "It all makes sense now."

Her eyes had returned to normal, and the flames around us had died down. _"Actually, you're not a full demon. Only half. That's why you still appear human."_

"How does that explain me then?" Elsa asked, her voice shaky with the fear of what she may be. Mother turned to her, and her expression softened.

_"You, my dear, needn't worry. You are completely human."_ I could hear Elsa breathe a sharp sigh of relief, but when she looked over at me, still shaking on the ground, she became worried again. _"When Jeram was born, it was the summer solstice, making him the most powerful fire being to walk this earth. Naturally there needed to be a balance to him, a light to his dark if you will. You were born on the winter solstice, as proclaimed by the Polar Mages. They came to your mother whenst she was still carrying you in the womb, and enchanted you with the most powerful spell that they could muster. They gave you the powers over the ice and snow, and all things cold, to cancel out the devil's fire. Yours was the gift."_

I got up off of the ground and brushed the dirt and gravel off of my palms. "So what was the point of all this? To tell us where we came from to pit us against each other?"

"Because that'll never happen." Elsa said in agreement.

"Mom" smiled. _"Oh no,"_ she said. _"That would be far too cruel to put two young people into a fight to the death. No, the sorceress has done her part."_ Then, she switched topics. _"Look around son, what do you see?"_

I glanced around the cavern. "Crystals. White crystals."

She smirked. _"Your ignorance is cute. These 'crystals' you see are actually ice. Ice of frozen holy water, frozen here over twenty years ago by the Polar Mages. They never melt."_

I was concerned for what was coming next. I nodded my head at Elsa, gesturing towards the stairs. "Elsa, run."

"But what about-"

"I said run!" She took off towards the entrance of the cavern.

_"The girl's task was to deliver you here. She did that remarkably, although unknowingly. A demon's one weakness is holy water. And for a fire demon such as yourself, this will be especially painful."_ She said, raising her arms. As she brought them down, the entire cave felt as if it was falling apart. All of the holy ice shards came barreling at me at speeds that I couldn't even comprehend. When the first one touched me, my entire body wracked with unimaginable pain. And I only knew it was going to get worse.


	9. Chapter 8: Awakening

**Ok here's the next installment, hope you guys enjoy it! I worked on the cover art a bit this week so that's why it came out today! If you enjoyed, send a favorite, or better yet a follow! As always, any constructive criticism or ideas for the story that you have is appreciated in the comments.**

All I remember was the pain. The extreme, horrible, earth-shattering pain. Once the shards brushed my skin, it felt like every nerve in my body was being chopped into tiny little pieces. I soon fell to my knees, my body breaking down. I saw the smirk on the projection's face, and my anger boiled inside me, pushing through the pain. I knew that my real mother would never take enjoyment in this. This was a copy, someone using her image as a mask. I could feel the fire welling up, despite the ice battering me from all sides. "RAAAAAAHHHHHH!" I screamed, fire exploding out of me from every pore, filling up the entire cavern. And, once the pain became unbearable, my flame-filled vision blacked out to complete darkness.

At first, I thought I was dead. I had never experienced something as awful as that, but dying would have been too kind of a fate for the universe to give me. I knew I was only unconscious once the dream started. I was floating around a dark wasteland, red clouds in the sky, lava, fire, and craggy rust-colored rocks below me. Every breath felt like poison was filling my lungs.

A smooth and sinister voice pierced through the dusty, hot air. _"Ah. So my prodigal servant returns. Welcome home."_

I looked around. This definitely was _not_ a place I wanted to call home. "Who are you, and what do you want with me?"

_"Oh, I don't want anything from you. I gave you the gift of life, so now it is your duty to fulfill your debt to me."_

"So you're him. The big devil. The one who made the deal with my parents."

I heard menacing chuckling. _"Call me what you wish. Satan. Hades. Beelzebub. It all means the same thing. But enough about me, let's talk about you."_

"What about me?"

_"Well, that's the thing. I don't exactly know what to do with you. With your power, well, just about anything I desired could be mine. You see, I can't cause destruction for myself, that's one of the biggest punishments I was given by the one who put me here. But, I can go and make deals with mortals who are in a pinch, and every once in a while, I get a useful pawn. You, my son, are the most useful one I've ever obtained."_

"How so?" I asked suspectedly.

_"When I was cast down into this wasteland by Him, I did get one consolation prize. My main goal was to overthrow Him from His reign, but my secondary goal was to get a contract with Him. I tricked him into signing away his power of smite for a mortal's lifetime. A power, that you have received by your most gracious leader, me."_

"What are you saying?" I called out, puzzled.

I heard the voice sigh. _"You have powers over fire due to my dominance over that element. Much like a fire wizard, but with demonic tendencies. I've had servants before with those capabilities, yet not of your calibre of rage. But that's besides the point. With the contract that I got, I added on another power to your already vast gifts."_

"Smite? I don't even know what that is."

_"You'll find out soon enough, it seems you just used it as you blacked out."_

"What does that me-" I was cut short when a blast of radiant light filled the landscape, and I could hear the voice of the Deal Maker howling in disgust. And then, I was alone, in the darkness of my own mind, yet again.

My vision was blurred, eyes fluttering open. At first, all I could see was blinding light from the windows, but then I saw my surroundings. I was in my room, in the castle of Arendelle. In the corner, Elsa was slumped in a chair in uncomfortable slumber, her hand propping her head up to rest on. It was probably eight o'clock in the morning, judging by the rising sun. I tried getting up, but it was too painful. My entire body ached, sore from what must have happened in the cave. I'd never conjured that much fire before, it must be taking it's toll on me. I groaned, putting my hand to my temple, trying to soothe the throbbing headache I had.

Once she had heard me, Elsa snapped awake. She rushed over to my bedside, sitting down on the bed next to me. "You're awake!" She exclaimed. She called out to the servants to get the doctor.

"What happened?" I asked.

She looked at me, seeming nervous. "Well, it was strange. We were in the cave, and the ice was coming at you. I ran, and when I was to the staircase, I saw you in the distance. The entire cavern was set aflame. It was all I could do to stay make an ice shield to not get scorched."

"Elsa, I'm sorry. I-I wasn't myself then."

"That wasn't even the strange part." she said putting her hand in mine. I raised one eyebrow quizzically. "When I saw you after you had sent the fire out, you weren't yourself anymore."

"I had blacked out as soon as the fire started."

"Then that definitely wasn't you. Those markings on your arm," she looked at my right arm. "They went over your entire body."

"What?"

"There's more. When you were tattooed all over, something happened, something that no mortal could do. It was a legendary power. It was horrifying."

"What was it?"

She looked into my eyes. "Jeram, you shot lightning. Throughout the whole cavern, every drop of holy water ice that you melted, a bolt went through all of them. It happened for a few seconds, then you collapsed, looking normal again."

"Smite." I said, thinking back to my dream. "It's the power of smite."

"Once you had fallen, the projection of your mom was gone. I went to get you, and got you back here."

"How long ago was that?"

"Eight days." she replied.

"Eight days?! How could I have been out that long?!" I tried to sit up, but Elsa put her hand on my chest and pushed me back down. I guess she wanted me to rest some more.

"I don't know, the best doctors in the kingdom were baffled. But it's just good you're awake." The doctors and servants rushed in. She stood up.

I grabbed her arm. In a quieter voice, I asked, "Elsa, did I hurt you?"

"No, but even if you did, it wasn't you that was doing it."

We were surrounded by a frenzy of activity, the once calm room filled with liveliness of people, asking me if I was hungry, if I needed medicine, basically tending to my every need. I looked to Elsa, who had edged back to the wall to give the doctors their space to work. She giggled when she saw the exasperated expression on my face, overwhelmed by the caring nature of all these people. I smiled back.

The next hour was mainly just a summary of what I had been through the past few days. The doctors marked it down to a small, trauma-induced coma that I had snapped out of miraculously quick. "We'd love to know how you recuperated so swiftly. It is a miracle indeed." One doctor who was gathering up his things said as he and his counterparts were exiting the room.

"Once I find out, I'll tell you." I called back jokingly. Elsa was leaning up against the wall, arms folded across her skinny torso. She glanced over at me, smiling.

"A lot to take in isn't it?" she said to me. "Do you believe anything that the spell told you was true?"

I sat up, my joking demeanor vanishing. I looked at the covers in front of me. "As much as I wish it wasn't, it all makes sense. Everything in my life connects to it. And that holy water spell proves it. I just wished it hadn't had been me."

Elsa sat next to me again, patting my leg comfortingly. "I'm glad it was you," she said, looking into my eyes. "If it wasn't, things would have been a lot different."

I knew what she was trying to say, but I decided to change subjects. "The woman in the cave said that I had to carry out tasks for the Deal Maker. When I was asleep, I had a vision of him with it." Elsa, at first disappointed, went to being concerned.

"What happened?"

"He said that he wasn't done with me, that I was very useful to him. Before he could tell me any more, the dream was interrupted by some kind of light."

"That's strange. What do you think it means?"

"It means that I'm a danger to you and everyone around here. I need to leave." I tried getting up from the bed, it was easier now, but Elsa still stopped me.

"Please, don't." She said, looking like she was close to weeping.

"Why is this so important to you?" She looked at me. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. The room started to get colder as the tears grew. Seeing the expression on her face, I switched tactics, grabbing her hand as I started to get up off of the bed. "Elsa, I wouldn't be concerned for the safety of these people if I didn't care about them. A lot. There's two forces trying to get at me now: Jeral and the Deal Maker."

"But we need you here. Think of what will happen if Jeral invades. Only you can stop them."

"What's going to happen if I turn into a full demon again? Who's going to protect Arendelle from me?"

"I will. I was given these powers for a reason, if need be, I'll protect Arendelle with my life."

I was glad she said that. Now I had a reason to stay. "Fair enough. But once I'm here, I'm here to stay. You sure you want to keep a demon in your house?"

"Half-demon, remember?" She smiled and winked. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

In the first few days of staying in the castle, it was nice, taking it easy after all those terrible years of running from my brother. I mainly stayed in my room until I was strong enough to walk without collapsing. (The first day I tried, that's what happened. Explaining it to Elsa was hell.) I ate, bathed, and spent many hours just talking to Elsa and her family, filling them in on my past life in Restauga. Elsa and I had decided to keep the demon part a secret because it would most likely freak out the entire kingdom. But, after my third conscious day in the castle, I started getting itchy to get out and do something physically demanding. I saw the snow melting and buds on the trees outside. Spring was coming.

Every day, I saw Kristoff heading out to his job of getting ice for the palace, which seemed a little strange considering that Elsa could generate endless ice, but you know, everyone's family is a little strange. At least his doesn't want to murder him. I decided to ask him if he wanted some help with work, just so I could get away from the castle, and maybe some male bonding. Elsa was great, but there comes a time when a guy just has to be a guy. One day, at breakfast we were all getting prepared for our day, making smalltalk as usual. Once Elsa had concluded her rant about Arendelle's economic situation, I spoke up. "So, Kristoff, you heading up to the mountains again today?"

"Yeah, there was a bit of a warm front that came in last night, It's gonna make ice all the more valuable." He replied.

"Mind if I tag along? I could use some fresh air."

"Yeah, if you think you can handle it," he joked.

"Whoa whoa whoa." Elsa interjected. "Jeram, you just came out of a coma_ three days_ ago. Suddenly you're all gung-ho to head up a mountain to slice up some ice? Are you crazy?"

"She's right. It does seem a bit loco." Anna said, twirling her index finger by her temple.

Annoyed, I said, "I was hunted for three years, in and out of prisons, always on the run. I never had a day off. I've had three now. I can't just sit here and do nothing while you guys cater to my every need. If there's work to do, then I'll go and do it."

Elsa sighed. "All right, just be careful and dress more warmly than you are now." She gestured to my desert clothes. Only thin leather pants and a tiny jacket that stopped halfway down my back, so my abdomen, chest, and lower back still showed. "Why are you still wearing those anyways?"

I stammered. "They're my fireproof clothes-"

"Well, we need to go and get you some new fireproof clothes then. How about today?" She said sternly. I was guessing that she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Aw, Elsa…" She looked at me with a menacing but caring expression. I sighed. "Okaaay." I felt like a two-year-old who just lost an argument to his mother.

"Good. We'll head into the market today." She replied.

Laughing as he headed out, Kristoff clapped me on the back. "Tomorrow then bud?"

I grinned. "Yeah man, see you then."

"Women." he said understandingly. "What are you gonna do?"

"I know, right? Catch you later." I said as he left.

Elsa turned to me. "Ready to go?" she asked chipperly.

I put on a smile, I knew that she wanted this trip to go better than the last time. "Yeah, let's head out." I grabbed my staff and followed her out of the palace.

"Where are we going?" I asked her as we were making our way through the crowd, passing up every stall with clothes.

"You'll see," she said. "These shops don't sell magic-resistant clothes, but there's one shop owner who I know has what we need." She grabbed my hand and led me to the very edge of the market. We were at the entrance of a lavender tent, with a chimney poking out of the top of it, smoke rising. The hustle and bustle was gone, it was obvious that this shop didn't get many customers.

We heard the voice of an elderly woman from inside. "Well are you coming in or aren't you?" I lifted the tent flap, allowing Elsa in first. I followed behind her. Inside the tent, there were all sorts of unholy items laying about. Pentagrams, skulls, and miscellaneous potion ingredients were strewn about messily. I saw the shopkeeper, but she didn't look like a witch. She was a tall, skinny woman who had aged well, probably in her sixties or seventies now. But that didn't make her any less of what she was.

"Witch! You're a witch! Why are you allowed a shop of such an unholy practice?!" I said.

The woman wrinkled her nose in disgust. Her pupils turned from their normal brown color to a luminent green, as if to inspect me. "That's rich, coming from a fire demon with the powers of a god."

"How did you know that?"

"I see all, child. Have some respect for a prophet as powerful as I."

"Have some respect for others as well!" I slammed my fist down on the table in front me, sparks shooting out from it.

"You'd do well to contain your rage, Jeram of Restauga."

Elsa stepped in between our argument. She placed her cool hands on my shoulder. "Jeram, it's alright. She's here to help. She's the Sorceress Dellit." She looked over to the witch. "She was there for me to help control my powers when no one else was." I saw the woman on the other side of the table straighten up as her title was announced. She seemed to care for Elsa, which was strange for a witch. All the others that I had heard of had only cared for their practice, nothing else. Elsa said. "Dellit,do you have any magic-resilient clothes in stock?"

Her expression turned soft toward Elsa like that of a grandparent looking upon their grandchild. "Yes, dear. But if they're for _him_," she turned to me, expression icy again, "then I don't."

"Come on Dellit, help us out here." Elsa pleaded. "You know that I pay well."

Dellit's stubborn scowl remained on her face, and her eyes flashed green again for a second, and she said. "Fine. But in addition to the pay, I get to read his palms. There are some secrets I'd like to uncover."

"Deal." Elsa replied in agreement.

"Wait… what? Who says I get to get my palms read?" I said.

"Do you want these clothes or not, hotshot?" Dellit said while rummaging through some garments behind her table.

"Fine." I muttered, sitting down on the stool. The sorceress produced two pieces of clothing to us. They were black with red trim, a lot like my other clothes. Strange that she had these colors in that small stack of clothes by her. Elsa took them and made me try to burn them. They wouldn't, which was a happy surprise for me. I never really had any other clothes in my wardrobe that I didn't set on fire. Elsa set a bag of coins on the table.

"Hold out your hand," Dellit told me, sitting down herself. I held out my left hand. "No," she pointed to my tattooed arm. "Your other hand."

I gave her my palm, and she gripped it, eyes flashing in and out from green to brown, green to brown. She was struggling for some reason. She looked as if she was furiously reading a book. I could feel her grasp beginning to to slacken. Dellit started to shake, beginning what I'm guessing was seizure. Her pupils had rolled back behind her eyelids, and she started moaning in a language that I couldn't recognize. I looked back at Elsa, confused. She was just as puzzled and scared as I was.

"Take your hand away!" she cried. "I think it's hurting her!"

I pulled my arm back away so Dellit's hands fell to the table. She would have landed face first into it too if Elsa hadn't caught her. I didn't want to touch her and cause her any more pain. Within seconds, her eyes fluttered open. She looked at me, frightened. "You, my child, have a tough road ahead of you. I wish you luck." Then, she ushered us out quickly, closing the tent flap tight behind her.

I was baffled. What had she seen to make her change her attitude towards me so quickly? One minutes, she was scolding and looking down on me, the next she's taking us out and wishing me luck. "Well that was weird." I said to Elsa. We were both looking at the tent in confusion. "Ah well, we got what we wanted." I began to stroll back to the castle.

Elsa jogged to catch up with me. "How can you be so casual about this? Someone was almost seriously hurt."

"After learning all that I have, I've decided to just roll with it."


	10. Chapter 9: The Mission

**Ok it's time for the next addition guys! Sorry it took so long, just needed some inspiration. If you enjoyed, leave a favorite or a better yet a follow! Love ya guys!**

The next day, the royal family and I were just finishing up breakfast, Kristoff and I had been preparing for the journey up the mountain all morning. As the servants had just cleared the table of the dishes, him and I stood up and made our way to the door. I scratched uncomfortably at my new clothes. It wasn't that they were rough or itchy by themselves, but I had gotten so used to wearing little clothes, mainly on my chest, that it all felt a bit off to me. We grabbed our bags of equipment and headed to the door, followed by Elsa and Anna. Anna started fixing Kristoff's straps on his clothes, making sure that he was ready to go.

"Be sure to be back before dark," she told him. "You know what happens when the wolves come out."

"Yeah alright," he mumbled to her. She gave him a quick smooch as I was heading out the door. I waved to Elsa. The girls grabbed Kristoff once I was far enough away and whispered something to him. At first, he was confused, then his eyes lit up as he looked over to me. What had they told him? I asked myself. Was it my secret? Surely Elsa wouldn't tell them. I was lost in thought when Kristoff lumbered his way over to me.

"Ready to go?" he asked, still walking.

I matched his stride. "Yeah, but where are we going?"

He was headed in a direction that I'd never gone to before. I guess I hadn't explored the grounds much while I was here. Another reason why I shouldn't be staying inside. We came to a stable of sorts, but it wasn't like any other stable that I had seen. This thing was huge, well made, and intricate. The walls were a variety of different colors of paint, and I could've seen a bit of gold added in for decoration at the top, around the chimney. Yup. A stable with a chimney. They must have treated their horses better than the Queen. When I walked in, it wasn't the stereotypical, awful stench of a stable that I had expected. It was clean, sharp, and brisk. The floors were made of white cobblestone, completely washed clean of any speck of dirt. Horses lined the stalls to the side, but I didn't see nor smelled any manure. All of the horses were a brilliant white color. All over, except for their black eyes, was white. At first, I thought it was strange. All of them white, but then I looked closer. These weren't horses at all. They were made of ice and snow, with two coal eyes.

"Strange, isn't it?" Kristoff called over from the other end of the stable. I had stopped in amazement and was still at the entrance to the barn, and he had made his way over to what looked like a reindeer. "I thought it was weird at first too, but then I saw how great these things were. Elsa can animate snow into anything she wants, so we took the real horses out and gave them to villagers that needed them while these guys replaced them." He patted one on the back. "They can take almost unlimited damage in battle, don't get tired, and most importantly," he said, pointing down at the ground. "Don't make a mess."

"Then why are we using a reindeer when we have these guys?" I asked. The reindeer made a kind of moaning sound, like it had heard me and was hurt by it. Kristoff patted it's head softly and whispered some words of comfort to it (or what I thought were words of comfort).

"This is Sven. He's been my friend from before I could remember. And he's faster and stronger than any of these horses." He took a carrot, gave the deer a bite and then bit of some for himself. _Ok, thing with the reindeer, that's a little weird. Then again, I'm a demon so I'm not really one to talk_.

"Alright, so are we ready to go?"

"Yeah, one second." He lugged out a large, shiny sled and hooked up the reigns to Sven. It was toted out by him, skidded on top of the thin snow. I sat down to Kristoff's right. "Looks like spring's coming soon," I said as we started riding up towards the North Mountain. "What does that do for business?"

"Makes it boom. When the Great Freeze came a few years ago, I was completely out of work. The first time I met Anna was when she was trying to get Elsa back from up there." He pointed up to the peak that we were headed to. He laughed to himself. "The only reason I went with her was to keep me from going broke. Who knew I'd end up marrying her."

The rest of the ride was him telling me of that first adventure with his wife, and how much they had bonded over time. When he recalled it, it reminded me a lot of how Elsa and I were right now, of course we were magical, and our stories were way more dangerous than a crazy prince trying to kill us. At least mine were. Once we were almost to our destination, I saw something in the distance, on the side of the mountain. It looked like a palace made entirely of ice, it's form now disfigured from maybe some summer temperatures that it had been through. I was going to ask Kristoff about it, but when I was about to point it out, it had slipped out of view and thought. We got up to the summit of the mountain, there was a frozen pond, still solid from the frigidness of the altitude. I was glad to be wearing these new clothes now.

As he started grabbing the tools out of the sled, he continued talking about his past. I started feeding Sven a carrot as I listened. He was getting around to where Anna and him were planning the wedding when I heard a high pitched ringing in my ears. I sat down on the floor of the sleigh, my feet on the ice below. I felt light-headed and my vision started to blur. I tried to shake it off, but to no avail.

"You okay?" Kristoff asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine-" I managed to say before I collapsed, forehead cracking on the ice. My vision blurred into black. Just as soon as I blacked out, I was in the same dusty, red landscape as I had been in a few days ago in my dream. This must have been another vision with the Deal Maker in it.

_ "You are correct, Jeram. I am indeed here."_ Said the familiar, sinister voice from the clouds of poison that surrounded me.

"Why have you brought me here? It's one thing to summon me while I'm sleeping, but to take me out of my waking moments is completely-"

_ "Enough! When I need you, I will beckon. I have finally found a purpose for you, my servant. And you will do so or she,"_ An image of Elsa's face appeared in the clouds. _"and all of her loved ones, will die by your hand. I can take control fully if I need to, just as I did in the cave. And I do hope that isn't necessary."_

I thought rigorously, trying to find any way to rebel against this being. There was no way out. I had no choice. Defeated, I said, "What do you need me to do?"

The voice sounded maniacally happy once I had asked that. _"After much thought, I have FINALLY found out the great role that you will fulfill for me!" _

"What might that be?"

_ "My mercenary, my muscle. An assassin. You see, there are, well, certain individuals that stand in my way, and I need them to be eliminated. There's no better use for you than this!"_ The voice's overjoyed tone made me sick. How could anyone be so glad about death? But there was nothing I could do. It's better for some random person to die rather than Elsa and her whole family.

"Fair enough. Where do I start?"

_"Oh, your compliance is most appreciated. For this first job, you'll be going after someone of high prestige and power, but nothing but a mortal. When you wake up, you'll be where you need to be."_

And with that, flames burst out of me, not so much burning, but rather like enveloping and suffocating. They crept from just under my waist, all the way up my chest, and eventually, wrapping over my head and face. When they went down again, I was in a dark, cool palace. The floor was an intricately crafted mosaic. I looked outside, the only light coming from a large, pure, full moon. An image appeared before my eyes, most likely put there by the Deal Maker. It was the face of a man. He was brunette, had side burns, and a sharp nose. The Deal Maker's voice popped into my head. _Don't mistake him for any of his twelve older brothers. I will guide you._

Suddenly, a trail of shimmering crimson light appeared on the floor before my eyes. I followed it, going up staircases, through hallways. I was careful to dodge guards as they passed me on their normal shifts. My feet were silent as I slipped through the seemingly endless hallways. Then, I came to a large, dark door where the red light had lead to. I placed my hand on the lock, turning it red hot until it melted. I pushed it open.

Inside, there was a moonlit room, a slight breeze blowing in through the open window. The white curtains billowed. The red trail moved towards the bed, where someone slept. It was one of those giant beds, with the posts that go up way higher than they need to, just for curtains. This guy was clearly royalty. I looked at his face, it matched the one I had seen earlier. I unsheathed my knife that hung on my waist, which was more of a shortsword than a knife. I didn't want to do this. But I couldn't not do it. I'd rather have this random man die a painless death instead of Elsa having an early, painful one.

Quickly, I put my hand over his mouth.. I brought my right arm up, blade pointing towards his heart. My hand was shaking with either adrenaline, anger, or fright. Probably all three. Just as I was about to bring down the blade, the man's eyes shot open. Seeing the knife, he pushed me away and rolled to the other side of his bed. I could hear him rummaging around for something. I walked over while I pulled my scarf over my mouth and nose, not wanting him to know who I was. Hopefully the darkness had shielded my identity from him at first glance. He turned around, producing a broadsword, pointed straight at me. He lunged, I parried. He evidently had training in swordplay, a skill that didn't surprise me that he had. Most royals are trained in combat. Too bad I was better.

I sidestepped as he brought his sword down in an arc towards me. I grabbed his wrist with my free hand, then bludgeoned it with the butt of my knife. His sword fell free. I gripped him by the neck and threw him up against the wall.

"Who are you, and why are you trying to kill me?" He whimpered, seeing that he was defeated. I said nothing, only narrowed my eyes at him. I could see the terror in him. They say the eyes are the gateway to the soul, and if that's true, then his was full of fear. I would have been too if it was a few years ago while I was still sponging off of my parents' power. I raised the tip of my blade to his throat now.

I was hesitating, and the Deal Maker knew it, so he made another image flash before my eyes. It was a younger version of this prince, sword raised, with Elsa on the icy ground. He was about to kill her. Anger bubbled up inside of me, which was giving me the push to kill, which was exactly what the Devil wanted. Unfortunately, it worked. I pressed the blade right into the man's jugular, blood trickling down from the gash. I heard him sputter, blood coming from out of his mouth as well. I kept him pinned up against the wall until I saw his pupils roll back into his head. I let him go, his corpse falling to the ground lifelessly. A puddle of vital fluid started to grow on the floor.

I ignited my hands and arms, burning the blood off of them. _"Good."_ I heard the voice say. _"A very successful mission. I will reward you with your temporary freedom. I will beckon once I have need for you again."_

The flames that had brought me here had returned, cleansing my skin and clothes of all the blood that I had forgotten to burn. When I blinked again, I was sitting in the sled, Kristoff, shaking me awake.

"You okay man? You toppled over a couple minutes ago, and I didn't know what to do. You wanna head back?" He asked, concerned. I sat up, trying to ignore the pain in my head.

"Yeah, I mean no, we don't have to go back, I'm fine." I got out of the sled, virtually unscathed. It was weird that only a couple minutes had passed, and it hadn't even appeared as if I was gone. But then again, I was dealing with the Devil here, and he can basically do anything he wants.

"Alright, whatever you say. Get some saws out of the sled and we can get to work."

The rest of the afternoon was hard, sweaty work. I couldn't believe that Kristoff did this every day. After the sawing, the moving, and the slicing of ice, I don't think that my arms had ever been more tired. We loaded the haul onto the cargo part of the sled while we saw the sun going down in the amber sky. It was so peaceful, I had almost forgotten that I had just killed a man a few hours ago. But that will forever haunt me. I tried justifying it, but I knew that I was only running away from the truth. I got in the sleigh as Kristoff flicked the reins.

I was lost in thought when Kristoff started talking again. "Thanks for coming out today. It was nice to have company that actually talks back." He looked at Sven.

"Yeah, no problem." I replied mindlessly, head still in the clouds. We started heading on the downward slope of the mountain.

"You don't talk much, Jeram."

"Yeah, Elsa said that too. Just kind of quiet I guess."

"You're pretty close to Elsa too. What's going on with you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think you know what I mean." He looked over to me, trying to get a fix on who I was, what my secrets were.

"As much as I want to be with Elsa, it's impossible Kristoff. There's just too many complications with me being the prince, and, other things in addition. I would if I could, but it's never going to happen." I told him.

"I see." He said shortly.

"But you can't tell Elsa I said that. I don't even think she knows."

"Oh I'm sure she knows." He said. "But I won't tell her anything."

The rest of the ride was silent, not because we were mad, but I think we just didn't have anything else to say. Darkness started to loom around us as we approached the castle. I had expected everyone to be asleep by now, but every window in the castle was lit up. Carriages lined the yard by the stable as we put up the sled and unloaded the ice. "What's going on?" I asked.

"I don't know." Kristoff said. He was a bad liar, I could tell it in his voice. He was trying to keep something from me. I gripped my staff more tightly, in case they had set something up to catch me, as we walked up to the front door. We were about to unlock it when Anna swung it open, right onto my face.

"Ouch." I said, holding my nose.

"Oh my God! Are you okay? I"m so sorry Jeram!"

I smiled and chuckled. "Yeah, I'm fine. What's going on Anna?"

She flashed a toothy grin as she looked at Kristoff. "You two need to get dressed."

"Why?"

"Why, because of your welcome party of course! Elsa and I set up the whole thing today! We've got a bunch of people in the ballroom who are dying to meet you!"

Great. A party. With royals who will most definitely will want to kill me. Fantastic.


	11. Chapter 10: The Party

**Hey readers! This next chapters a short one, but it's setting up a pretty epic one for next time! If you enjoyed, follows are much appreciated. If you have any suggestions to the characters/plot, I'm open to them in the reviews. Thanks a lot!**

I was whisked away by a servant that Anna had assigned to take me to my room. When I had gotten there, the servant, a woman, probably about forty, presented me with what I was expected to wear. I laughed out loud when I saw it.

It wasn't like it was bad looking or anything, but the idea of me wearing it was completely preposterous. It was a black suit with reddish-maroon trim, much like everything else that I wear. When I thought about it, this was actually a really nice garment. But it wasn't me. I was a raw, uncivilized animal that got hunted across nations. Not a sophisticated gentleman that wore suits and fraternized with the higher class. I looked at the servant, unamused. "I am not wearing this." I told her.

"Queen Elsa's order, sir." she said, handing them to me. "She says if you do not wear them, then you must not want to attend." She came closer to my ear. "And with a girl like that one, son, I'd _put on the suit_."

This frustrated me. Why did everyone assume that Elsa and I were an item? I met her literally a few weeks ago, and I'm only here to keep this place safe from my stupid brother. I cast away feelings a long time ago, at least that's what I lead everyone to believe. And I wasn't about to end that charade now.

But still, I looked at the suit. I thought of how much planning must have been put in by the girls. For some reason, I went into my bathroom and quickly bathed, shaved, and changed. I had disobeyed my instincts, thinking that it couldn't hurt just this once. I looked at myself in the mirror. I had combed my shaggy black hair back to make me look suitable. The suit fit perfectly. I would have tested it to see if it was fireproof, but decided against it as to not ruin the outfit before the party. I sighed. I didn't want to go out there tonight. I had planned on sitting by the fire, relaxing, but instead I have to pretend that I'm a normal man, from a normal kingdom. Before I headed out, I put my shortsword on my decorative belt.

The woman who had brought me here had returned as soon as I had exited my room. "Dear, you look quite dashing." She said, her wrinkles more apparent when she smiled. I decided that I liked this staff member. She reminded me of my mother. And not the crazy version that had tried to kill me a few days earlier in the cave.

I followed her to the door of the ballroom, behind it the sounds of music and laughter beckoned. My stomach churned at the thought of interaction. I clenched my fists, trying to get a handle on things. The servant saw that I was stressed, and she put her hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "It'll be fine, son. Just relax and have fun. This is a party after all." I exhaled.

"Thank you." I said, but she was already gone, whispering something to a man with a trumpet that was inside of the dancing hall.

He blew his trumpet and cried, "Intro-ducing Sir Jeram of Restauga!"

The music had stopped. I figured that that was my cue to enter. I popped my knuckles and pushed the door aside. When I saw the party, it was extravagant. There were giant cakes, servants going around with silver platters, offering food to the guests. I saw men and women, children and teenagers, of all ages, skin colors, and sizes. But the most disturbing fact about them was that they were all staring at me. Hushed whispers were spoken amongst the mass of people. I froze, not knowing what to do. I was about to have stood there long enough to make it seem awkward, but then I heard the delicate clomping of small dancing shoes on the waxed stone floor.

I turned and saw Elsa walking over in ball gown that was shimmering white and light blue, not unlike a lot of dresses that she'd worn, but this one was different. It called attention to her, not in a bad way, like saying: _Hey I'm the Queen_. Once she got over to me, she smiled and hooked her arm in mine, then started walking formally to some of the people to the side of the room who weren't dancing. People's attention had mostly shifted elsewhere.

"What are we doing, Elsa?" I said through my teeth, not wanting people to know what I was saying.

"Just meeting some people," she whispered back. "When I told these people about you, they were dying to meet you."

"What all do they know?"

"Not much," she answered. "Nothing about your powers, you can tell them that if you want. But I did say you were from Restauga."

"Okay, that's alright. I can work with that." I looked around as we were walking. "This is a great party." I squeezed her a little closer to me while I thanked her. I was offered a drink by a servant, but I declined it. I wasn't much of a drinker.

"Do you like it? I wasn't sure if it was too much, but we couldn't just bring you in without a welcome party-" She started going on and on like she always did with this kind of stuff, but I liked it, it was kind of cute to see her flustered.

Her rambling ceased once we had reached the people that we were moving towards. It was a good-looking couple, about our age I'd say. The man was tall and lean, with floppy brown hair and a goofy smile. He had a pendant around his neck of a sun. The woman was a tiny thing in a pink dress, with green eyes and short, brown hair. She wore a wedding ring on her left hand. Her eyes lit up when she saw us approaching. To my surprise, she rushed up and hugged Elsa.

"Good to see you cousin! How's life here in Arendelle?" she asked.

"Oh it's fine, just, you know, picking up the pieces." Elsa replied with a sigh. She looked over to me. "Rapunzel, this is Jeram. Jeram, this is Rapunzel and her husband Eugene." I took the girl's hand and politely kissed it, and exchanged a sincere handshake with Eugene.

Eugene paced around me, looking me up and down. "So, Jeram, what kind of work are you in? They said you're from Restauga. You harvest sand or something? I've heard there's some serious scorpions in those deserts. Their eyes are pretty valuable from what I've heard. What I wouldn't give to-" he started talking in a hushed tone.

"Forgive him, he's still trying to relive his days of a thief." his wife said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "But what_ do_ you do Jeram?"

I was at a loss for words. I wasn't sure if I should just come clean, or make up some crazy lie to protect my secret. "I was a military wizard in training." I fibbed. "When I came here I was separated from my master. I'm still trying to find him."

"Magic? That's great! Just like us Elsa!" she blurted out. I wondered what kind of magic this woman practiced. There wasn't anything really that I could tell from her appearance, then again I just lied about me being a mage, and that hasn't set her off at all. I looked at Elsa, and she raised her eyebrows at the white lie I just told.

"What kind of magic do you use?" asked Flynn.

I looked around, not wanting to startle any of the other guests with my powers. I held out my palm, rolling up my sleeve to not catch it aflame. My tattoos showed a little bit once I pulled it up. Suddenly, sparks flew out of my hand, instantly producing a tongue of fire. I could see their eyes light up as soon as it was summoned.

"Wow!" Rapunzel said. "And that doesn't hurt you at all?"

I closed my hand into a fist, extinguishing the flames. "Nope." As we continued to talk for a few minutes, I looked to my side and saw that Elsa wasn't there. She was talking to the conductor of the musicians that were playing. Once she had said what she needed to, she walked back over to me.

"Well Mr. Igneal, would you care for a dance?" she asked with joking formality.

I returned the wit. "Why yes, madam Queen, it would be my pleasure." I grabbed her by the waist as the next song started. I could see Rapunzel whisper something to Eugene as we left, but couldn't make out what it was.

At first, the dance was up-tempo, and we were care free, just two friends joking around on a dance floor. But then, the beat slowed down, as did our pace. I caught myself pulling her closer. I looked down at her, her eyes coming up to about to my mouth. I think she could sense me looking at her, because as soon as I was studying her face, she looked up at me. I could see those big, blue eyes. I wanted to turn away, pretend that I wasn't looking at her, but I couldn't. We stared at each other for a few more moments. Her mouth curved into a smile. "What?" she asked with a kind of giggle.

I returned the smile. "Nothing," I said. I could see her close her eyes, and start leaning towards me. I tore myself away, getting out of the moment. It was a good thing I did, too, because as soon as I looked up towards the window, I saw a giant shadow, coming from the skies. This was bad. I looked down at Elsa, still leaning in towards me. I released my grip on her, and she opened her eyes. I could see tears welling up in them, but I couldn't worry about that now.

"What's wrong?" she asked shakily. I didn't look at her, I was still staring intently at the shadow coming from something that I wished I had never had to encounter again.

"Stay here Elsa." I said calmly, rushing off to my room. She followed me out of the dance hall. She grabbed my arm.

"Jeram, what's wrong?" I could see and hear that she was close to weeping.

"Elsa I said stay here! Do not go outside. Promise me!" "I-I promise." She replied, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I'll go back to the party."

"Thanks. You won't even know I was gone." And with that, I ran down the hall to get my staff and my combat clothes. I could hear the sniffling noises of Elsa grow fainter and fainter as I ran. I cursed under my breath. It was terribly rude for someone to show up to a party uninvited. Even ruder was to show up riding a dragon.


	12. Chapter 11: The Leverage

**Waddup readers! Next chapter is down below. If you enjoyed, a follow is much appreciated. I work hard to balance this, school, sports, and my personal life, but I love you guys and the community we have going on here. We got some exciting new things happening in here, so buckle up!**

Fun fact about Restaugan wildlife: If it's big, it will try to kill you. If it's small, then it's definitely going to try to kill you. Basically everything in that hellhole of a kingdom is deadly. From the plagues of poisonous locusts to the scorpions that are bigger than carriages, it's fair to assume that Restauga is the absolute last place that anyone would ever want settle in. But even though the wildlife is scary, what's even more horrifying is the creatures that we've trained to work for us. When training in the army, I thought it was great, having these beasts at my beck and call. But once I had fled from my home, I was terrified of them. And Jeral knows that. So, naturally, he brings the biggest, nastiest beastie that he could get his royal hands on.

I burst out of the kingdom doors, wearing my desert clothes, wielding my black staff. Rushing out of the courtyard, I found Jeral, mounted on top of a gray dragon, clad in white armor that matched the rider's. On the ground, there was a posse of at least a hundred men- all on top of horses. Although hundreds of feet in the air, I could still make out Jeral's cocky grin.

"What do you want, Jeral?" I shouted up to him.

"I know that you know, brother." He called back. "Come with us quietly and we won't hurt this lovely kingdom and your cute little girlfriend in there." I saw him unsheath his giant sword from it's scabbard. The moonlight glinted off of the polished blade.

"I'm not going anywhere with you, and you're not hurting these people either."

As soon as I said that, I launched my myself into the air, fire expanding in a line on the ground, protecting the palace from the ground troops. I was hurtling towards Jeral at speeds even he couldn't comprehend, and whacked him with my staff before he could raise his sword in defense. His free hand shot to his head, where I had just created a massive bump. His other arm was occupied by swinging his sword at me, who was now standing on the dragon's neck, in front of him.

"Dammit Jeram that hurt!"

"It wasn't supposed to feel good," I said, dodging and blocking his blows. He was definitely a skilled warrior, just not as good as me. He got up from the saddle, trying to balance like I was. He lunged, sword leading him. I knocked it aside easily, glancing down at the mounted forces, trying to get past my wall of fire. It seemed to be keeping them at bay for the time being. I could see that my ease in gaining the upper hand was starting to anger my little brother, as his attacks were becoming sloppier and more frequent.

"You… little… insect," He exclaimed in between the swings of his sword. "You… can't… win… against… this… many…"

He made a particularly large arc of his sword, which was his biggest mistake. In the time it took for his sword to make it's way to me, I summoned a giant fireball, bigger than my chest, and threw it at him. I could see it blasting him down the spine of the beast that we were on, eventually making it to the the tail, and then free falling, down towards the ground.

It would've been easy to let him die. And I wanted to. But, right as he started to flail in the free air around him, I remembered my mother. And what she would have wanted me to do. Unfortunately, I did it. Shooting off of my spot on the dragon, I swooped down and caught my sibling by the underarms, setting him down not-so-gently on the ground below.

"Oof" he said, a small plume of smoke rising from his hair that I must have caught on fire. He patted it out violently, feeling it's burn. I flew back, past the flame wall, looking back to my brother and his feeble attack party. The men's horses were fleeing in fright of the heat, getting bucked off to the ground. My brother himself was incapacitated for the moment, trying to regain his dignity. I thought he'd be distraught from this failed effort, but he was still smiling that devilish grin as he always did when a plan went his way. I was confused. He then grabbed a blowing horn from around his neck. "Do you know what this is, Jeram?" "

Um, a signaling horn?" I shouted back, puzzled. This part of the plan I really had no clue about.

"This horn is a training tool that we use with that dragon." He pointed up to the beast in the sky. "If I blow this, he'll shoot a fireball so powerful, that it'll wipe Arendelle off of the map."

My eyes widened. That was a good plan indeed. Separating him from the sky titan that loomed above hadn't mattered at all. The scheme all along was for me to choose between my freedom, or the safety of Elsa. And he knew what I would choose. I was defeated.

As he was pressing the horn to his lips, I extinguished the fires, and sank to my knees. Soldiers rushed to me, and bound thick, iron chains around my wrists. I looked down at the singed grass in front of me, reflecting on my decision.

"I knew that you'd see it my way," The demonic voice of my brother said. "But, just to see you suffer," He blew the horn. It's loud, oppressive sound rang through the air like a battle cry. I looked up to the the dragon, whose eyes had widened. It's head was rearing back for an attack, and I could see the ignitable gas that was pouring out of it's giant mouth. Quickly, I jumped up, swinging my bound hands underneath my legs, putting them in front of me. In one fluid movement, I melted the chains in my hands, and, with the molten metal still clasped in my grip, I pressed it on the faces of the alarmed soldiers flanking me. They screamed in agony, falling to their knees.

I could see the dragon trying to ignite the gas that was billowing out. I knew that I had to stop this creature, no matter what. I was about to summon the greatest fireball I had ever made, but then a strange feeling washed over me. The sky had turned black with a coming storm, sparks flickering all throughout them. I closed my eyes and pointed up to the dragon, index and middle fingers extended towards it. I used the same willpower as I did to shoot flames, but this time it was different when launching. Instead of fire, concentrated, intense heat arced from my fingertips. I opened my eyes, seeing a bolt of lightning escaping from them.

It hit the scaly beast dead-on, right in the throat. I had deflected it's blow by knocking his mouth upward, making him shoot the flames harmlessly into the sky. I could see the flicker of static coursing through it's skin. It tumbled from the heavens down to earth, shaking the ground as it landed behind Jeral. My brother looked at me in disgust and horror.

"What kind of creature are you?!" He said, more nervous from before, but I could tell he wasn't going to give up.

"The one that will be your doom-" I said as I involuntarily crumpled to the ground. Summoning that bolt must have taken every ounce of energy that I had left. I heard my Jeral laugh in delight of this convenience. Through my hazy vision, I could see that the tattoos on my arm were glowing a bluish white, still crackling with electricity. I looked past my arm, my vision fading. As the guards started hauling me onto their steeds, I saw a figure in a blue dress rushing out of the castle. She was running to me, but couldn't keep up with these battle horses. I tried to extend my arm to reach out to her. Once the soldier saw I was doing this, he hit my head with the butt of his sword, knocking me out entirely.

When I came to, the squadron was in a grassy plain, enjoying some dinner around their campfire. It was probably past midnight, the stars were all out and the air was cool, but not freezing, which was a welcome relief from Arendelle. Still, I wished I was there instead of here. I was sitting down, bound to an old, sturdy tree stump. Ha. I thought. Stupid soldiers, I break out of these kind of chains every day. Instinctively, I started heating up my hands, but something was amiss. I could only manage a few sparks, which had barely ever happened. I couldn't get a flame, much less melt these irons. I thought back to my coma, remembering that the last time I used lighting, I was out for over a week. That's why my powers were so exhausted. Desperately, I shook my arms, trying to break free using my strength. Jeral heard the clattering I was making, and he walked over from his buddies to meet me.

"Oh hi brother! Good for you to finally join us!" He said, hitting me with his closed fist. I could feel blood trickle from out of the corner of my mouth. I coughed, but never lost eye contact. I could hear the men laughing at me. Many of them had been my friends back in Restauga. All of them, including Jeral, were drunk. "We're taking you back home, brother!" Jeral said mockingly. "Won't that be nice? Just like old times! Of course, I'll be in my room, in the lap of luxury, while you'll be rotting in a jail cell, awaiting your execution!"

"Why not kill me now?" I asked in a raspy voice. "Oh Jeram, that would be too simple." He snickered. " We want to kill you in front of everyone that you used to love, because you took from me the one who I loved."

"You know I didn't mean to kill mom."

Rage filled his face as he picked up my staff and cracked it upon my face. I started to see dots dance before my eyes. "Shut up! She wouldn't have died if it wasn't for your weakness!" He hit me once more, and I saw the familiar blackness, ready to envelop me. My eyes rolled back into my head as I was knocked out.

I awoke to the biting sand in my face. The sunlight was blinding, the heat scorching, and the wind was insufferable. Yep, I was home all right. I was laying on a horse, still bound, behind a riding soldier. He felt me shift in position, and looked back. "Oh good, you're up. Now my horse doesn't have to carry such a heavy load."

I was about to ask why his horse didn't have to carry so much, but then he threw me face-first into the sand. I heard a chorus of laughter of the men riding around us. A heavy chain connected my handcuffs to the saddle of his horse. I started walking, the chain getting yanked by the stallion I was attached to. The wind howled around my ears, and the sand hitting me stung my eyes and lungs. I slipped my scarf over my face to protect it. I looked around at our surrounding. We were in the Northern Dunes, returning from the cold mountain ranges of Arendelle. I stumbled along, noticing cliffs to the south, the ones which the palace rested on. I heard Jeral from the front. "Come on boys," He said, pointing to the cliff faces. "We're almost home."

I stumbled along for miles, hungry and dying of dehydration. The throbbing in my head from the numerous times I was hit hadn't ceased in all the hours that I had been asleep. The baking sun kept bearing down on us, with no relief. The sky was completely blue, I couldn't see a cloud in it. I tried summoning fire to run away, but no such luck. I was still drained. Even if I could escape from these men, I would die from thirst long before I could get back to Arendelle. The best thing that I could do is rest and refuel in prison, and break out before they can kill me. Biding my time was the only option I had.

I could see Jeral, he had my staff and shortsword both strapped to the saddle of his horse. He had his helmet down, keeping the heat and blowing sand away from him. It must be nice to be the favorite child. But I never cared for that sort of thing. I care even less now.

We traveled for hours, and truth be told I'm surprised I even made it to the walls of the town without collapsing. As the gates swung open, I took off my scarf. The wind is nonexistent with the walls blocking it. That may have been a mistake. As I was getting dragged along the marketplace, people started to recognize my face. Their once neutral expressions turned to those of hate and disgust.

"Traitor!" One of them called.

"Unholy one!" called another. Dozens more of these insults kept coming my way as we passed through. I saw one man pick up a rock about the size of a fist and throw it at me. I dodged it, but that did little good. The other peasants followed the example of their fellow citizen, stoning me on the spot. Rocks were hurled towards me, mainly my head. Most of them didn't hit me, but a few did, battering my already bruised body. One connected with my jaw, and a trail of blood sprouted from the contact point. I endured this torture for the entire way to the prison. I was unhooked from the saddle, and led in by my brother. He took me to a small, private cell with a strange pair of handcuffs attached to the floor. He attached them to my wrists. They went from my wrists all the way to my fingertips, completely enclosing my hands.

"Confused, Jeram?" He said in a content tone. "I bet you've never seen bindings like these before. That's because these aren't like any that you've had before. I've learned from all of our past experiences that no matter what I put you in, you always seem to get out. But these are different. You can't melt these handcuffs. They're magic-resistant, just like those clothes you're wearing. Good luck getting out." He tightened them, getting them so tight against my wrists that they were cutting into my skin. He then turned and left, cackling as the door shut in my face.

I sat down, pondering what to do next. This was unexpected. I tried to study the cell, but my mind was going a million miles a minute. I tried so hard to find a way out, but my thoughts always traced back to one person: Elsa.


	13. Chapter 12: The Execution

**Small chapter, a bit rushed but I promise a big one's coming your way in a couple days! If you enjoyed, a follow is much appreciated. Thanks for everything guys! Peace!**

It had been a week since I was thrown in the cellar. My mouth was dry and caked with mud, the desert dust somehow managing its way in there and staying, soaking up every bit of saliva that I had. I was dehydrated and starving. A guard came in once a day to give me a small cup of water, just to sustain me until the public execution._ Just like old times_. I thought. Going back to the palace lifestyle had softened me up, but now I was in hell again. It's always nice to have a normalcy to life, isn't it?

It could've been worse, I suppose. At least in this cell, I was shaded somewhat from the ruthless sun, which made its way in through a crack in the ceiling at some times of the day. I had found that I had regained my powers halfway through the week, waking up from a dream spitting fire. That caused quite a disturbance with the neighboring prisoners. I could've easily broken out by now if it wasn't for these damned magic-cancelling shackles that I was in. I pulled and tugged every time that I could, but alas, it was useless. My only hope now was for Elsa and the Arendellens to come and rescue me. I slumped over, drifting off into a sleep/trance state that I went into a lot when entrapped here. A vision came.

I was overlooking the Northern Dunes, not an unfamiliar sight. But, what I saw riding across them was new to me. At least two dozen snow stallions were sprinting on the sand, with flurry clouds above them. I didn't know what the clouds' purpose was, but then I realized that it was to keep the horses from melting. That was clever of Elsa. Her, Anna, and Kristoff were leading the sprint, followed by numerous armored guards, packing heavy weaponry. It was an impressive effort, for sure, but I knew it wouldn't be enough to storm the castle. Our defense on the cliffs was just too strong, but maybe if Elsa was with them, she could make a difference.

I focused on her for a long while. She wasn't in her usual blue dress, she had a white and tan tunic on, with a white turban wrapped around her head. Most of the others were dressed the same, they had come prepared for the desert. I looked at her face intently, or as much as I could through the dream. Her blue eyes were squinted against the wind, her lashes catching bits of sand in them. I saw that she had a weapon strapped to her saddle. It was a staff, much like mine, but smaller, and white, with light blue details of snowflakes on it. I started pondering where she had acquired such a weapon but then thought back to her sorceress friend Dellit.

I saw them closing in towards the cliffs when I was shaken awake by a guard. "Come on, son." He said somberly, picking me up by the underarms. "It's time to go."

"Go where?"

I didn't hear a reply, but that still answered my question. He unhooked my cuffs from the floor, but keeping them on my wrists so I couldn't conjure anything. When we went out the door, I was escorted by five other guards, all grabbing onto my arms so that I couldn't escape. I didn't struggle. I knew that a rescue party was on the way, all I needed was a bit more time.

When we got to the front doors of the prison, a sack was pulled over my head as they lead me somewhere, most likely to the place of my execution in the castle. As soon as we stepped into the streets, I could hear a faint droning sound. As we walked further and further, the sound became stronger and stronger. Once we had stepped into a certain place, the sound was deafening. I could feel the sun on my back as I was led to the center of the noise. I could tell now that it was shouting. My jacket was taken off of my back, exposing my bare skin and tattoos going to about the middle of my chest. My arms were raised as I felt myself getting secured to another position. The bag was ripped off of my head. The sight before me was magnificent, and terrifying.

I was in the middle of the colosseum, chained to a giant wooden pole, larger in diameter than I was. The stands were packed, full of angry Restaugan citizens, cupping their hands over their mouths. In the Imperial Box, I could see the figure of my father, sitting down calmly in his chair. He was in his purple robes, and his crown lay upon his royal head. I hated him now more than ever. I looked next to him, seeing my numerous cousins and relatives, all talking amongst themselves excitedly. I asked myself how they could be so evil as to turn on their own family in an instant. I got myself so worked up, I could see the flames burning before my eyes. I looked around in the Imperial Box some more, around my treacherous family, but couldn't see Jeral. But then, a gate opened, and out of the darkness came a man clad in white, wielding a large longbow in his hand. The crowds' jeering and shouting had turned to wild cheers, rising to their feet and applauding their hero, the paladin. I could hear teenage girls squealing and fainting in the stands. _Jeral must have turned into the real heartthrob while I was gone,_ I thought.

He held up his hands, silencing the crowd. He raised his voice, shouting to the people once the noise had died down. He pointed at me. "Jeram Igneal is sentenced to high treason! He will now be executed in the name of justice!" I heard the overpowering roar of the people come back. He shot up his hands again. "He has escaped this fate for too long! Today, he meets Satan!" Jeral then let the crowd continue their cheers.

He walked over to me and whispered in my ear, which I could barely hear between the cries coming from the stands. "This is three years too late, brother. This is for mother." He walked about fifty yards away from me, taking an arrow out of his quiver and notching it on the bow. He raised it towards me, making sure that the aim was right. I knew it would be. Ever since we were boys, Jeral had been an expert marksman. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Anna, Kristoff, and Elsa running into the stands. They must have easily gotten into the kingdom, all the military had been here. As the bowstring was released. I looked at Elsa in the distance. Her hands were cupped over her mouth, blue eyes piercing through the air. I looked down. The arrow had sunk itself into the left side of my chest. Right into my heart. As blood poured from the wound, my vision died, along with the rest of my body. I was gone. Or so I thought.


	14. Chapter 13: The Second Chance

**Ok, I've kept you guys in suspense for almost a week now, so here it goes! If you liked, a follow is much appreciated. If you have suggestions, help me out with a review! See ya!**

"No,_ no, no, Jeram! This absolutely WILL NOT do!"_ An angry Deal Maker voice pierced through the darkness. Suddenly, I was in a low-lit room, the only light coming from the fireplace. I was sitting in a comfortable, red-fabric chair, facing the fire. A figure stood in front of it. I tried to make out his features, but his entire frame was shadowed, the light from the fire making it too difficult to recognize his face. He started to pace. _"You are the strongest entity on that earth, yet you can't even live through a measly arrow!"_ He said.

"Um- I'm sorry? I'm only human."

The man got right in my face. At this distance you would think that I could see his face, but as I looked at him, I saw that all he was was a shadow, through and through. His hot breath blasted in my face. _"No! You're NOT human! I kept you alive for the specific purpose of you not being one! And now you've done it. All my fine work…"_ He trailed off as he waved his hand, a chair materializing out of the blackness. He sat down and buried his face in his hands, thinking.

I sat there awkwardly for a few minutes while the being in front of me was searching his thoughts. I looked around the room. It was very lavishly decorated, or at least it once was. I could see the fancy wallpaper peeling from the walls. Mold and dirt were in the corners of the room, masked by the gloom of the shadows around it. I came to the conclusion that I must be in hell, knowing that I still had died, and that I definitely didn't have a place in Heaven.

_"I got it!"_ The Deal Maker bolted upright in his chair, then stood up gleefully. Quickly, he walked over to the door of the room, and opened it. A reddish pink light streamed out of it. He looked back at me, which was a bit strange, seeing a lone shadow bathed in light. _"Well, ya comin'?"_ He extended his hand, pointing towards me. I lurched out of my seat, levitated by his power. I was set down on the floor behind him as we walked through.

When I saw what was on the other side of the door, I was amazed and horrified. The circular room had to have been at least a hundred feet high, forming a dome at the top. On the walls, there were shelves, filled with potions, ingredients, and pentagrams. I gasped, seeing the collection of his unholy symbols and brews. I could sense that this was definitely a bad place, one where not even God cares to dwell in.

The shadow was floating, about twenty feet in the air, rummaging through the various concoctions on the shelves. He was muttering to himself, probably trying to remember where something was. _"Aha!"_ I heard him shout, grabbing something off of the cupboard. It quickly disappeared in his hand. I watched him as he stared down at me, floating back down onto the floor. He thrust out his closed fist, offering me the thing he had just grabbed. As he placed it into my palm, I felt a huge tremor, like an earthquake. The world around me started to fray away, piece by piece. Cracks started to creep along the walls, as if I was ceasing to exist here. I looked into my hand. It was a necklace with a black pendant, with the symbol of the fire demon on it, just as I had once seen in the cave.

"What is this?!" I shouted to him, the world falling apart around me. Where the cracks in the walls formed, all I could see was darkness. "And why is this place falling apart!?"

_"Put that around your neck, Jeram! And don't lose it! That's what is going to keep you anchored to the real world. I still need you to do my bidding, you know. Only you can remove it, so don't worry about that."_ Chunks of the floor were starting to give way now. I was standing on the only piece left when the he added, "_A piece of advice: don't sit up too fast."_ Then, the last tile of the ground toppled, and I started to free fall.

**XXX**

I landed on to a hard surface, on my back, with a healthy thud. It was cold, wherever I was. Very cold. I groaned, putting my hand to my head, trying to make sense of what I had just heard. I decided that it must have just been a dream, and that I was still awaiting my execution in Restauga.

I bolted upright, or at least tried to. As soon I brought my head up, it slammed into hard stone. I groaned again, yet another reason to put my hand on head. I laid there for a couple minutes, then felt my way around, looking for a way out, but I couldn't find one. Everywhere around me, there was a wall of stone. I ignited a flame in my palm, looking around where I was. On the side of one wall, etched into the stone, it read my full name: Jeram Leviticus Igneal.

This wasn't a room. This was my coffin. It had all really happened. I looked down at my chest at where the arrow had hit. There was a pale mark there, but it was as if the shot had happened years ago. It didn't hurt at all when I touched it. Still looking around my chest area, I saw the necklace from my vision, the symbol on it glowing orange in the darkness.

Suddenly, I heard a sound. Not protruding, or annoying, but sad. It was someone weeping, and it was nearby. I started to see frost appear on the top of the coffin. Elsa. I thought. Without thinking, I used all my demonic strength and punched the top of the coffin. I was actually surprised at how easily my fist went through. The pendant must have boosted my strength. Rubble fell into my little alcove of stone, but then I punched again, moving the top slab of stone off. I climbed out of my concrete tomb. The crying had stopped as I rose into the world once again, the sun shining and the air fresh. I could see a teary-eyed Elsa, in a black dress, looking in amazement at me.

"Oh" I said to her. "Hey."

Without saying a world, she tackled me in joy, bringing me to the ground as she laughed. I guess she must have gotten caught up in the moment, because as soon as she was on top of me, she closed her eyes and pressed her lips against mine. She must have realized what she had done, because her eyes quickly snapped open in surprise. I saw her blush in embarrassment when I didn't kiss her back. She pulled away, still happy to see me. "You're alive!" She said, staring into my eyes as tears fell from her and onto my chest.

Still in shock at what had just happened, I said, "Seems like it." She rolled off of me to my right. I saw her glance over.

"How'd you do it?" The grin on her face hadn't left. I looked over to her, then pulled out the pendant that was around my neck.

"I know a guy." I said, jokingly. The fire emblem hadn't stopped glowing, even in the light I could see it clearly.

Her face lit up in curiosity when she saw the necklace. "What is that?" She sat up. I did the same. She took hold of the symbol, inspecting it in her soft hands. After a couple seconds of touching it, she gasped and dropped it. "Ouch!" she squealed. "That's hot!"

I picked it up, but it felt cool in my hands. I wasn't phased by it at all, and I'm not sure my invulnerability to fire was the cause. Looking down, I said, "I'm not really sure, but all I know is I can't lose it."

"Where'd you get it?" "

You know. Him."

"Ah, I see." She could tell that I didn't want to talk about it, so she didn't pry any more. She stood up and brushed the dirt off of her dress. I stood up as well, noticing that I was back in the suit that I had received the night of the ball. I must have been buried in it. I looked around and saw that I was in Arendelle, at the royal cemetery. I looked at my ruined coffin, and kind of felt bad that I had destroyed it, it was a work of art. The top of the casket had one of those fancy statues of me on it, laying down, apparently asleep. A stone version of my staff was clutched in my hands, across my chest. Where my left arm should've been, there was the hole that I punched through earlier. Seeing the statue of myself reminded me that I didn't have my staff with me, which was the one thing I always had.

"Elsa, where's my staff?"

"It should be in the coffin." Sure enough, it was. I picked it up, and it felt like embracing an old friend. I was glad to have that again, I was glad in general that I was back. I walked back to a smiling Elsa. As we walked back to the castle, I felt the pendant on my chest, growing heavy with each passing footstep. I knew that the gift of life wouldn't come without a price. There's always a catch.

Elsa bumped me playfully with her shoulder. "Sorry I kissed you, I uh, must have slipped."

I grinned. "Don't worry about it. I 'slip' all the time," I replied, pecking her on the cheek. Her white cheeks turned bright red as she smiled.

**XXX**

_"Enjoying yourself, Jeram?"_

I must have fallen asleep in my room. After I had walked back here with Elsa, we enjoyed a private dinner by the fireplace, interrupted only once by a happy snowman, skipping through the halls. I could feel our friendship growing, maybe into something more. I know that I had promised myself that I wouldn't get involved, but it felt like some outside force, pushing us together. I've never felt like this about anyone before. It was strange, yet refreshing.

But now I was in the realm of the Deal Maker, the craggy, red landscape of Hell surrounding me. I could sense he had something important to tell me.

_"You know, you can't forget the reason I brought you back here. You're still mine."_ He threatened.

My mouth curled in a defiant frown, not saying a word. I hated this. I hated him. I was haunted so much my dreams, I never wanted to fall asleep anymore. But I knew it wasn't within my power to disobey him. I knelt down on the sharp, blood-red rocks below my feet and bowed my head. "What would you have me do, Master?"

I could hear him laugh. It was an awful, cruel laugh that sounded like metal getting sharpened by stone, the screech sending a chill down my spine. _"Now that's more like it! You've finally learned loyalty! Good to see! Unfortunately, right now I don't have another assignment for you, but not to worry, one will come. No, today I just came to you with a warning."_

"That's kind of you, my Lord." I said, standing up.

_"Indeed it is. What I came to tell you is as always, the gift of life is never free. The first time I resurrected you, when you were a babe, you became my servant. This time, the cost is more pricey. That stone around your neck,"_ I looked down at the fire pendant I had received not hours before. _"It is called an Ignus Lapidem. It keeps your soul anchored to your body. If you take it off, or it gets destroyed, you'll be back here in Hell until I can get you another one. Unfortunately, they are uncommonly rare, and it would be quite an ordeal to obtain another. Needless to say, if you lose it, you'll most likely never see your little girlfriend again."_

It pissed me off that even he thought that Elsa and I were together. "Damn it to Hell, she's not my girlfriend!"

I heard him chuckle. I knew that there was more that he hadn't told me about the Lapidem. _"There's more to the pendant, if you aren't too busy interrupting me."_

"My apologies, my Master."

_"You are forgiven. As I was saying, the Ignus Lapidem is a rare piece of magic, not many things can bring you back from the dead. Of course, this always comes with a price."_

"Yes, what's the price?"

_"Every person that you've ever brought to death will be resurrected along with you, and I'm guessing, most of them will be coming back to you, for blood."_

The dream had shifted away from the hot, dusty scenery of Hell to a cool island cemetery, the spring breeze filling the air. Although I was away from the land of the damned, I could still feel the presence of the Deal Maker in my midst, observing along with me. The moon shone bright on the ocean, which I could see through the wrought-iron gates that protected the gravesite. I heard a sound coming from behind me. A giant stone tomb, with the name Westerguard chiseled over the entrance. I could hear the cracking of stone, and the tumbling of rocks onto the floor. Stumbling footsteps came out from the darkness, which then corrected themselves to normal walking. Out of the shadows came a young man dressed in a white suit, with brown hair and a faded scar on his throat. This was the man that I had killed weeks ago. He looked pretty good for a guy that been decomposing all that magic must have healed him completely. I saw him stare into my eyes, but walk right past me, to the gate.

_"He can't see us."_ Satan told me. _"We're just here as projections. But he will come for you. More importantly, he'll come for Arendelle."_

"Oh no."

_"Oh yes."_


	15. Chapter 14: News from the Front Lines

I awoke to the clap of thunder, panting. I bolted upright in my bed, trying to comprehend what I had just been told. I looked outside to the window. It was the middle of the night, a spring storm had blown in after we had all gone to sleep. Flashes of lightning followed by the response of rolling thunder steadied into a natural drumbeat. I clutched my head, wracking my brain. I needed to figure out what to do next. I couldn't let Hans march on Arendelle. I needed to go, intercept him before he could harm Elsa or any of her people.

Just as I was about to get up to pack my things, there was a light knock at my door. With a snap of my fingers, sparks flew, lighting the candle sitting on my bedside table. I picked it up, and walked over to my door. _Who could it be at this hour?_ I thought. I opened it to find Elsa, in nothing more than a silk nightgown, that only went to just above her knees. I could see her pale skin in the darkness easily. "Elsa? What are you doing here?"

"I-I didn't know where else to go. There's been some news." Her voice was shaky. Sensing that she was upset, I quickly ushered her in.

"Come in, come in." I sat her down on my bed, next to me. I set the candle down on my nightstand. I faced her and grabbed her shoulders. "What's wrong?" I asked sincerely.

She looked down at the covers. "It-it's the Southern Isles. A fleet of their ships were spotted in Arendelle waters. It looked like they were going to battle. They were led by-"

"Prince Hans." I said angrily.

"Yes, but how did you know?" She asked in disbelief.

"I just know." I scooched farther up on the bed, still sitting up. "I need to stop him." I swung my legs onto the floor, walked across the room, and started rummaging through my things, throwing them into a leather knapsack that I found in the room's closet.

"I'm going with you." Elsa said, getting up herself. "I'll go get my things."

"No you're not." I said in disagreement. "It's too dangerous."

"I wasn't asking permission."

I looked over to her. Her big blue eyes shone towards me, determined on tagging along. "Elsa, the things I do, they're too risky, I can't put the Queen of Arendelle in that kind of danger."

"Jeram, they're sailing over _water_. You have powers over fire. If you go there alone, you'll _die_." Her voice wavered as she said 'die'. "I can't lose you again!"

She looked like she needed some real comfort. I walked over her and wrapped my arms around her small physique. I kissed the top of her head. "You won't." I whispered. We stayed there for a good while, embracing each other. The thunder and lightning didn't quit. I could feel her heart thumping alongside mine.

"I need to come with you." She said quietly, burying her face in my shoulder.

After a couple more minutes of hugging and thinking, I decided that she could be an asset in stopping the fleet. I broke our contact and laid down on my bed. She followed, curling up next to me, trying to keep warm. I stretched my arm around her, her head resting on my chest. I stared up at the ceiling, flickering in the flashes of lighting that were coming from the window. I could feel Elsa's cool skin on my warm body.

I sighed. "You can come along," I said, defeated. I knew that I couldn't always keep her safe. Ever since Jeral had encountered us on the mountain those many weeks ago, I didn't want anything to happen to her. But I didn't count on her being as headstrong and stubborn as she was.

She sat up and looked at me. "Really?" She asked, surprised. I nodded. Her eyes lit up with her smile. She hugged me. "Oh thank you!"

"We'll leave in the morning. You better go to your room and get some rest."

She cuddled up closer, facing me. "I'll sleep better here." She said, closing her eyes, putting her head on my arm and her hand on my chest.

I stared up at the ceiling, happily surprised at finding a smile on my face.

**...**

I winced as sunlight crept its way across the room, into my eyes. I felt great. I guess death makes you really tired. Still laying down, I looked out the window, I saw that the storm had passed and gave way to bright, beautiful morning, with the sunrise tinting the clouds a sort of red color. I thought back to earlier, when Elsa had come into my room. I thought it had just been a dream, but then I looked over. The Queen was next to me, hands latched onto my left arm.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Jeram?" Anna's voice sounded from the other side. "Breakfast is ready! Can I come in?"

Panic flooded my emotions. "No! I'm -um- indecent! I'll be there in a minute!"

"Okay! Just come down quick or it'll get cold." I heard her footsteps lead away.

I whispered quickly to a happy Elsa, who was breathing lightly in comfortable slumber. "Elsa! Wake up! We fell asleep!"

Slowly, she arose. Her usually tame hair had unraveled into an unruly mess, but that made her look cute, in a way. She answered me with a dignified "Hmmph?". She must've been halfway asleep, but then her senses snapped into focus. A look of alarm came to her face. "Oh my God! How am I going to explain this?! Look at us!"

She was right, it looked like something that it wasn't. All I had on was my leather pants, and she was only wearing her tiny silk nightgown. I thought frantically. I knew that Kristoff and Anna were expecting us at the breakfast table.

"Um… okay, your room is just down the hall. I'll get dressed and make sure the guard doesn't see you, and you run down to your room and get ready."

She nodded in agreement. I slid on my shirt, jacket, and boots and started briskly walking down the hallway. As I got to the end of the hall, I looked over my shoulder to Elsa. Her face looked red even from here. I saw her sprint down to her room. As she went, I distracted the guard, telling him "Good morning" and all that. I looked behind me again and saw the limber figure of Elsa disappear around the corner. I breathed a sigh of relief, bringing my pace down to a victorious stroll. My pulse slowed down as my nervous feeling went away. We got away with it.

I sat down at the table, sunlight streaming in through the huge windows that showed the glistening Eastern Ocean. I knew that Elsa and I would be sailing on that very sea later today, but how explaining it to Kristoff and Anna would be a difficult task indeed.

"Not hungry today Jeram?" Kristoff asked. I realized that I had been staring out the window, and hadn't touched a thing on my plate.

"No, just had a couple things on my mind, that's all."

"I see."

We sat there in silence for a few minutes longer. I picked at my food, but was too anxious about the journey ahead to really fill up. Eventually, Elsa came, hair still a little bit of a mess, but she had made an effort and had tied it into a hasty braid.

"Well where have you been, sleepyhead?" Anna asked, joking.

"Oh, just enjoying the perks of being Queen. Choosing when to come into work. Except when someone keeps knocking at my door. For the past twenty years." I could tell that she was trying to lighten the mood, make it look like nothing suspicious had happened.

"That's funny, because when I went in after knocking, you weren't there."

Elsa's eyes widened in alarm. Her pupils darted over to me. I had no idea what to do.

"I was in the throne room. Apparently there is a threat coming from the South." Elsa said, taking her place at the table.

I was amazed at her quick thinking. Not only did she avert the attention from her being in my room, but she also let them know about the problem that we needed to go and deal with. "We're leaving as soon as we get packed." I said, standing up.

Kristoff cut in. "Wait- how do you know about this? And who is the 'we' that you say is going with you?"

"I had a dream about it. Prince Hans is sailing from the Southern Isles to Arendelle. It'll take him a few weeks to get here, but I think that Elsa and I both can stop him."

"How did you get all of that from a dream?"

I tapped my finger to my head. "Power of foresight." I lied. They still didn't know I was in league with the Devil, and if they found out now, they definitely wouldn't let me go with Elsa. "I can see some things before they happen."

"Wow!" Anna exclaimed. She turned to her sister. "Can you do that too?" Elsa smiled and shook her head.

Kristoff, staying true to the main point, asked, "Why is Hans coming back? Didn't he face justice at the Isles?"

I lied again. "I don't know. All I do know is that we need to go and stop him."

"I'm coming with you." Kristoff said, starting to stand up. Anna's expression turned to worry.

"No!" I said forcefully. I calmed my tone. I took him aside and talked to him privately. "You don't have powers, and you aren't a warrior. It's too dangerous. Besides, you can't leave Anna here alone, she definitely couldn't come."

He sat pondering this for a few moments, then saw my reasoning behind it. "Fair enough. But take care of Elsa. We'd be shattered if anything were to happen to her."

I smiled. "Will do."

After I had left the table, I went back to my room and gathered the few belongings I had. It took me about two seconds to pack. I made my way down to Elsa's room, and knocked on her door. I heard her bustling about her room.

"Come on in!" she said quickly. I saw her, moving around her messy quarters, grabbing things and throwing them into a large bag. I could hear her muttering to herself, saying "I need this, and this, and-oh! This will be perfect!"

"Um-don't you think that's a bit much?" I asked, looking at her bag.

She stopped and looked at me. "No! We're going off to sea, after all. It'll be a long journey. You'll thank me later." She then resumed her ritual of throwing objects into the knapsack. I wondered how we were going to carry it all the way to the harbor.

After lugging Elsa's baggage all the way to the harbor, we came upon a merchant who was selling small ships. He was a tall and skinny man, with a pointed handlebar mustache that rested underneath a long, pointed nose. He had greasy, balding hair sitting atop his head. He wore a purple cloak, trying to convey how rich he was. Unfortunately for him, the cloak was tattered and frayed at the edges, with mud caking the low-riding edge. Although he stank of rotting fish and all the sweaty men working around him, he still shewed away those whom weren't as lavishly dressed as him.

Needless to say, when he saw us, his buggy eyes lit up as the prospect of a sale came headed his way. He must not have recognized Elsa as the queen, or maybe was too rude to care.

"Hello," He said in a nasally tone. His tongue seemed to wiggle like a worm in between his teeth. Everything about this man I disliked. "How may I be of service?" I noticed that he was looking particularly more at Elsa, like a dog eyeing some meat. I decided it was best for me to do the talking.

"Yes, we were looking for a small, fast vessel that can be easily manned by two." I said.

He tore his eyes away from Elsa and turned to me. I could tell he was annoyed, but he put on a fake, yellow-toothed smile. "Yes, yes, right this way sir." He hissed as he walked towards a small sloop. It was about a hundred feet long, with a handful of tan-canvas sails. He gestured towards it, over exaggerating its extravagance. "This craft is top-of-the-market, I personally guarantee that this will suit your needs!"

"Is that right?"

"But of course! But you know, quality doesn't come cheap." He stepped forward and started rubbing his fingers together, gesturing that we needed to pay him handsomely.

"Okay, what's your price?"

We bartered for the next few minutes, but it came to an end when he said that I could pay less if he had a few minutes alone with Elsa. That pissed me off a lot. I grabbed him by his shirt collar and slammed him against one of the support beams of the canopy above us. The beam was solid oak wood, but when his back connected with it, I saw the sheer force start to splinter it. He cried out in pain. I realized that I had been in this situation before, with the drunk at the market.

I growled furiously at him, looking through the flames that were omitting from my eyes. "She is_ not_ for sale!" I saw him nod quickly, sheer terror in his eyes. I let him go, and straightened his collar politely. "Now, we'll pay the price that we agreed on, and you are _never_ going to look at her again." He nodded again nervously, too frightened for words. He was much more cowardly than the drunk, or maybe he just didn't have the help of alcohol that the drunk did. Either way, we gave him his gold, which he took shakily in his hands, and the ship was ours.

I climbed aboard first, grabbed our luggage, then helped Elsa up. We tended to the sails, and were off into the wide-open expanse of the sea.

I tied off the wheel to our heading, then leaned back on the main mast, looking in front of us. I put my hands behind my head and breathed a sigh of relief. Elsa walked over next to me, and leaned her head on my shoulder

"Thanks for taking care of that creep back there," she said softly.

"No problem," I said. "He was way out of line."

"You're always there for me, Jeram. I can't thank you enough," she told me, looking ahead.

"You don't have to; I'll always be here," I said, frowning at the stormclouds I saw in the distance.


	16. Chapter 15: The Storm

**Alright guys, here's a new chapter for ya! A special thanks to _Grimlock King Of Arendelle_ and_ dark wolf in the night _for helping me out with getting inspired for this chapter. As always, if you enjoyed, a follow is much appreciated, and if you have some constructive criticism, don't hesitate to leave a review. Have a good weekend you guys!**

The storm hit us, and it hit us hard.

"Get in the cabin Elsa!" I shouted, pulling at the ropes to raise the sails. Sheets of rain pelleted me from all sides. It was all I could do to stay standing, between the howling wind and the monstrous waves that pummeled our hull, nearly capsizing us each time we were barraged with the masses of water. I had to raise the sails. If they tore off, we'd be stranded at sea.

"I can help!" She yelled back. Her hair was in a frenzy, getting pulled every which way by the wind. Hey eyes were squinted, trying to keep the rain from hitting them. I saw her feet freeze to the deck of the ship, anchoring her so she wouldn't fall down. She started tugging at the main sail..

I wrapped my scarf around my head, trying to ease the pain of the stinging water that was hammering away at my skin. I looked over the side of the ship. I saw the black, churning water coming towards us, ready to swallow Elsa, the ship, and me. For a moment, I froze in fear. I knew that if I fell in that that would be it for me, no matter how much magic I possessed. This was the first time I felt..._mortal_.

I shook off the fear, trying to put Elsa's needs before mine. I hoisted the sail up into a dense, furled package, then moved over to help her.

I worked my way across the deck, struggling against the wind which seemed to be coming from random directions. Together, we brought the canvas up, safe from tearing. I grabbed her waist, pulling her towards the door to the cabin. "Come on, we need to get inside!" I bellowed. She came along, but when we were in the doorway, a bolt of lightning flashed before our eyes, striking the main mast. It splintered and charred right in the middle, but before it could fall, a thick bond of ice encased it. I looked next to me to see Elsa, arms outstretched at the sky, casting the magic. "Nice work!" I said once we had gotten into the cabin. We could still hear the roar of the storm clearly from the outside. The boat rocked violently.

"Thanks. Somehow, I just thought that that was going to happen." She said with a fake grin, trying to lighten up the dark situation. I walked over to the navigation desk and sat down, trying to decide where in the ocean this storm would put us. We hadn't laid anchor, for fear of the storm ripping the anchor off completely. So, we were drifting, going as far as the wind would take us.

I looked up from my map, over to Elsa. She was sitting up on the bed, arms wrapped around her legs with her chin resting on her knees. Her eyes were staring intently on the floor. She was worried, and I could see why, but it was more than just scared-she seemed terrified.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

She looked up from the floorboards and up to me. "It's nothing."

I stood up from my desk. "It's obviously something. What is it?" I walked over to the bed and sat down next to her. Her gaze had returned to the floor, as if something extremely interesting was going on down there and she had to see it.

"It's stupid."

"Stupid or not, why don't you tell me?"

I saw her lips quiver as she breathed heavily in and out. "It's just- my parents died at sea in a storm like this. I'm just scared that we'll be next." She looked really distraught. I know that losing a parent isn't easy, and I can't imagine losing two at once like she did. That probably was what led up to her going berserk and making the Great Freeze.

I tenderly wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "Hey, look at me." She glanced over at me. I put my hand under her chin, lifting her face up to mine. "We aren't going to end up like that."

"You promise?"

Thunder clapped outside, making us both jump, but I soon regained my calm composure.

"I promise."

**...**

After a fitful night of sleeping on the hardwood floor of the cabin, I awoke with many splinters, but more importantly with the realization that the boat wasn't rocking from side to side. I looked up to the bed, where Elsa lay. She looked comfortable and peaceful. I don't know why, but it always calmed me to see her sleep. Of course, then I remember that watching girls while they sleep is really creepy, so I turn away and head out the door.

Pushing the heavy oak door aside, I stepped out, surprised that the sun still wasn't up. I must not have slept as well as I had thought, because the stars still brightly shone, and the full moon wasn't even close to setting. It was surreal, where we were. I quickly let down the sails and corrected our course, then stood for a moment, taking in all of the beauty around me. The air was warm and salty, but not humid. I leaned on one of the banisters of the boat. I lifted my head towards the heavens, observing the glistening dots in the sky. In the water, there was this strange bluish-green glow, which I could only conclude to being some sort of magic. I inhaled, smiling as I let the breath out. It was times like these that the world really was a spectacular place. It was strange to think that just a few short hours ago I was terrified of the sea, but now it seemed almost alive. Beautiful.

My thought were soon interrupted by a voice across the water. No, not one voice, but a whole slur of voices. Looking across the glowing navy ocean, I saw craggy rocks in the moonlight. On top of them, I saw silhouettes of people, dancing and lounging upon them. It was a strange place for people to be partying, for sure, but I saw no harm in checking it out, maybe they needed help and were signaling for us to rescue them. I adjusted the boat towards the shale-like islands that were jutting up from the surface. As I got closer, their voices sharpened into focus. They were beautiful, melodic, female voices. All of them. I found myself enjoying their lulling song, a stupid grin forming on my face. I peered over the edge to get a better look.

Seeing them more clearly, I saw that there were no men amongst the crowd of women. Not just women, but attractive women. They had beauty to rival that of Elsa. I noticed something else. Even though the darkness made them hard to see, I was pretty sure that they were all naked. Wanting to maintain the little decency I had left, I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to snap myself out of this fog that I had let my mind fall into. But, just as soon as I brought myself out of this phase, the soothing song pulled me right back in.

I tried everything to stay alert, slapping myself, closing my eyes and ears, banging my head against one of the masts, but it was no good. Eventually, I was always back at the railing of the boat, staring at these gorgeous girls that danced and sang, not twenty yards away from me. They noticed me, and I could hear a pause in their song, giving way to giggles and waves, gesturing me to come and join them. Yeah, that was a good idea. I'll just go over and say hello. What's the harm? They're just girls, after all. What could happen? I wanted to go and see them. I had to go and see them.

Still in a daze, I jumped into the air, planning on diving overboard, when something stopped me. I looked at my legs, which were now restrained mid-air, with a inch-thick layer of ice, connecting down all the way to the deck. I saw Elsa on the deck, eyebrows forming a mad expression. Her mouth curled into a tight scowl.

"And WHAT do you think YOU'RE doing?!" She asked loudly, placing her hands on her hips. I was about to answer her, but all I could think about were those girls on the rocks. I looked back towards them. Elsa's voice persisted. "WELL?!"

I looked back at her, annoyed. What right did she have, telling me what to do all the time? If I want to look at some girls, then I will. I growled back angrily. "Let me go! I gotta go see these people-"

I was about to say more, but then the high pitched lullaby they were singing took me away. I leaned my head back, swooning. While I continued my staring, I felt Elsa's hands on my ears, and then ice clogging up my hearing. I whipped my head back, infuriated at first, but then, once the music had faded, I saw what I was doing. I saw Elsa grin once my face had gone back from its numbed state. The ice anchoring me to the boat melted, and I followed her below deck, keeping the ice in my ears. I closed the door snuggly behind us, which Elsa then froze for good measure, keeping as much noise out as possibly.

I plugged my nose and shut my mouth, then breathed real hard. The ice popped out of my ears, followed by some flames. I heard Elsa laugh at my trick.

My expression turned serious. "What were those things? And what did they do to me?"

We both sat down on the bed. I was shivering. She wrapped a blanket around me, seeing that her ice bonds had really brought my body temperature down. "They were sirens. My sister and I learned about them when we were younger. Men fall under their song's spell and usually drown trying to get to them."

I thought about the water and shuddered. The one thing that I couldn't defend against was water. And to think I was about to dub it beautiful. "And they almost succeeded." I said. "But you were there for me. Thanks."

She smiled at my gratitude. "You would've done the same for me."

I got up and returned the grin, placing the blanket back down on the bed. "Come on, let's get you back to sleep." I said, turning down the bed so that she could lay down. "We have a full day of sailing tomorrow."

She got underneath the covers, asking, "Are you sure you don't want to come up on the bed? There's plenty of room up here for two."

"Thanks, but I'm fine here on the floor." I blew out the candle, darkening the room. I stretched out on the cold planks of wood, trying to get into a comfortable position. I didn't find one, so I just sat there, staring up at the ceiling, listening to Elsa's breathing start to slow.

I wanted to go outside and observe the stars again, but I was too afraid of the sirens to go back. I would've drowned if it weren't for the young ice sorceress. I hated being here on this boat, surrounded by all this water. The sooner we stopped Hans, the better. I laid there, and by some miracle, I fell asleep, into a deep, dreamless state.

**...**

"Jeram, wake up!" Elsa sat next to me on the floor, shaking me awake.

I answered with an intelligent "Heh?", and then got up, casting off my drowsiness. "What's going on, Elsa?"

She got up with me. "I was out looking to our heading, and there's some land ahead. Should we stop?"

I went out of the cabin and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Off on the horizon, I saw a small, green spit of land. "Yeah that's a good idea. Let's dock there for a little bit." I just wanted to get on some dry land, get away from all this godforsaken water.

We laid anchor about two hundred yards offshore. I wondered what we were going to do without a rowboat, but apparently Elsa had a plan for that. She attached a rope off the side of the ship and repelled down, and as soon as her petite foot touched the water, a giant blue snowflake expanded from it, leaving the ocean around her frozen solid. "Come on!" She said, gesturing for me to come down. I carefully descended on the rope, making sure that I was always over the ice. I heard Elsa giggle at my caution. "What's the matter fire demon, scared of some water?"

"No, its just- I'm not a huge fan of swimming, alright?" I replied, finally getting my feet on the ice.

Elsa shot a sly, entertained glance at me. "Alright scaredy-pants." She raised her arms, and the ice extended from us, making a bridge all the way to the shore. We walked until we reached the white sand. It felt so good to be back on something that wasn't shifting all the time.

"Okay, how about you stay here and collect some supplies while I go scout ahead for some fresh water?"

"Sounds good, just don't go too far," She replied, a bit concerned.

"Don't worry, I won't." I told her half mindedly, trudging into the treeline. I kept my eyes peeled for any running water, paying attention to the noises around me. It was strange, I didn't hear any birds or animals. Even stranger was that there weren't any bugs, which I would think would flood to a hot and humid environment like this. It place was completely silent, except for the occasional rustle of leaves from the sea breeze. I looked down at the muddy ground, still wet from the storm I guessed. My boots kept on slipping on it, making progress difficult. I leaned heavily on my staff.

Finally, I came to a dry clearing, with what looked like a ravine in it, but it didn't go anywhere. It was like a fifty foot scar in the land. I had a view of the opposite beach of the island, with some menacing-looking white rocks jutting out, in rows.

I sat down on a boulder, taking a rest from my trekking. I ignited my hand, and started entertaining myself with the fire. Putting it into a ball, I threw it up in the air and caught it multiple times. One time, I sneezed just as it was coming down and missed it. It hit the long gash in the earth, leaving a black scorch mark. Thinking nothing of it, I conjured more and started playing with it again. Soon, the ground started to rumble. I looked down at the slash in the the earth, which was expanding with the shaking ground. I stood up, then fought to keep my balance.

Suddenly, the mark opened fully into a white circle, with a brown and black pupil in the center. Freaking out, I looked to the spiky-rock beach, which was now opening into a mouth, revealing that those rocks weren't rocks at all- they were teeth. I started off running back to Elsa. We were dead, oh so very dead.

I burst through the treeline, sprinting at top speed. I saw Elsa, struggling to maintain her footing, looking back at me.

"ELSA!" I shouted. "IT'S A FISH!"


End file.
